Memories and Dust
by truenorth7
Summary: The past will always catch up with you in the end. Just ask Jack and Ianto. Thanks for the reviews and following this story. Last chapter now posted!
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**: The past has a funny way of working it's way back to you, no matter how fast and far you centric(duh!)  
**Warnings/Spoilers**: Language Warning  
**Disclaimer**: Yes I too own nothing...NOTHING! *Sigh*  
**Takes Place**: No real setting here, latter half of Season 2 but in my perfect universe Owen is not dead.

Jack stood up from his desk and walked over to the window to look out on his team.

Rolling his neck he worked it to release the pent up tension of catching up on paperwork, by far his least favorite job. Annoyingly Ianto was probably right when he said it wouldn't be so bad had he been doing his paperwork as he went along, but it would be a cold day in hell before he would admit it to the Welshman.

Sighing he eyed his team as they went through the motions of keeping busy in what had been the quietest week that Jack could ever remember, and that was saying something. If the down time had proved anything it was that they were all adrenalin junkies addicted to the thrill of the hunt and they were not very good at just sitting around. Right now they were discreetly keeping their collective distances from each other and just as well they were.

Jack was fairly sure he would have been the one mopping up blood off the floor, more than likely Owen's.

For an educated man the Dr really had trouble engaging brain before acting, thinking, speaking and breathing for that matter. Sometimes he thought Owen just liked to antagonize a reaction from whoever was in striking distance and lately his target was Ianto.

Owen took it as a personal mission to derail the normally unflappable man. To Ianto's credit he usually managed to hide his reaction and not give in to the shit-stirring medic, well most of the time. It could have been the recent inactivity and boredom that set Ianto off, the prank certainly wasn't the worst thing Owen had ever attempted but the latest prank had sent the young man into a fury Jack hadn't seen for a long time and it made Jack wonder what else was behind it, it was a thought Jack stored away for later, there was no way he was letting it drop. It is true though what they say about people with long fuses….takes a while to get there but once it detonates, the only thing that will save you is an underground bunker.

At first it was the collection of pizza boxes Owen had kept stored in the medical bay for over the last week. Jack watched as yesterday Owen placed a pizza box on Ianto's desk first thing in the morning only to replace it as soon as Ianto had cleared it away. 24 boxes later and Jack watched as the cracks in Ianto's façade began to show through. Watching as Ianto gritted his teeth muttering incomprehensible curses under his breath Jack was impressed that the young man still refused to rise to Owen's taunts. He was tempted to step in but knew Ianto would kill him twice for fighting his battles for him, besides Ianto could more than handle himself when it came to Owen.

Owen was not to be deterred however and decided to up the ante. Unbeknown to Jack, or anyone else for that matter, Owen had to snuck down to the Archives and planted 2 stink bombs in amongst the 'e' section knowing Ianto had started yesterday cross referencing the entire archives and was about to hit the fated section. No-one had noticed the broad mouth-splitting grin Owen sported this morning as he waited like a kid at Christmas as Ianto retreated to the Archives.  
Jack wasn't aware how long he had been down there, all he knew was that he had been interrupted in his report to UNIT by a bellowing Welshman and a hysterical Londoner. At first Owen had missed the intensity of fury that flowed from Ianto and he was too busy laughing.

"Hey Teaboy, you smell like something Myfanwy coughed up"

A roar and Ianto lunged for Owen and managed to catch him, dragging him to the ground of the Autopsy bay.

"Jack! Do something!" Tosh yelled, horrified.

"Hey it was just a joke" Owen now had a panicked edge to his voice.

It seemed he had only now realized the abject fury emanating from the crazy Welshman.

"Fuck Ianto, get the hell off me!" Owen was panicked now.

Ianto looked down and just grinned at him, a maniacal grin that held no joy.

"Make me!" He hissed.

Owen was quiet; a grip of fear had passed over him. Gwen and Tosh stood above, whimpering and unsure of what to do. Suddenly Jack's voice boomed from up above.

"Ianto! STAND DOWN!"

Ianto didn't move. His jaw clenched and unclenched, the fury making every fibre in his body tense and on fire.

"Jack" Owen called in a panicked voice. "Get him the fuck off me!"

"IANTO!" Jack yelled again, trying to get his attention. There was still no movement of recognition from the young man.

Jack decided to change tact and he leant down next to him, his mouth almost level to his ear.

"Ianto?" Jack called softly this time

Heavy breathing from the young man told Jack he was trying to calm down.

Jack placed an arm under his shoulder and pulled him off the medic. He turned him around and marched him up the stairs out of the autopsy bay. Owen floundered on the ground recovering his voice he shouted after them.

"Fucking crazy Teaboy!"

Gwen and Toshiko stood looking down on him shaking their heads.

"What?" he asked with mock indignation.

"Owen you are an idiot you know that?" Gwen rolled her eyes at him as she and Tosh turned tales and left Owen to gather himself.

tbc


	2. Chapter 2

Jack marched Ianto up to his office, opened the door and dragged him inside.

"Stand" Jack said unnecessarily as Ianto made no move to do anything but.

Jack maintained his distance once he had let go of his arm and took up his position behind his desk, well aware of the psychological advantage this gave him when dealing with his staff, and Jack had to be seen in doing this right.

It didn't matter what kind of relationship he held with this man, at work and in work matters he had to be treated like all other employees.

"Mind telling me what the hell that was all about? I mean I've seen Owen bait you before but I have never seen a reaction quite like from you?"

Jack kept an edge to his voice determined to do this properly.

Ianto had the decency to look ashamed now that he seemed to have snapped out of it.

"I'm sorry Sir."

"That doesn't answer my question Ianto, maybe Owen deserved a little back lash but I kinda get the feeling there is more to this than just Owen being the adorable shit that we know and love. So let's try this again……what was that all about?"

Ianto made eye contact with Jack for the first time; a shadow seemed to pass over his face, just for a brief moment that Jack almost missed it.

"I guess all this waiting around has me on edge Sir, I let him get to me and I shouldn't have, it won't happen again"

Ianto held his gaze for longer than he wanted before averting his eyes to study the carpet in Jack's office. Jack however kept staring at him, Ianto could feel the cold blue boring into him and it made him squirm inside.

Sensing Ianto would not reveal anything else Jack sighed, he was doing that a lot lately.

"Go and get cleaned up Ianto, then you can start on cell duty, I will leave a list on the coffee machine"

As Ianto left for the showers Jack called after him.

"This conversation isn't over Ianto"

Ianto paused slightly but never turned around, stopping for a brief moment Jack could hear a faint mumble leave the Welshman's lips.

"It never is……sir" and Jack watched him all the way to the showers.

********************

Ianto opened his locker and took out his spare suit he kept for emergencies. He felt dirty, grimy and yes…stinky.

He was still shaking slightly from his encounter with Owen.  
He knew on a intellectual level it was a weakness to give in to Owen in full on prat mode, but today it all got the better of him.

Of course Jack was right to say there was more to this than just the norm, whatever that was these days.  
There **was** something he knew he needed to tell Jack about, he had planned to talk to him today but now all he needed to do was shower and make himself busy before he broached this particular topic with his boss.

It had all started with that phone call from a man he never thought he would ever hear from again. It was brief, but enough to leave him shaking and he was still shaking when Jack had called by as promised.

Jack had quizzed him about his state when he had let him in and been unable to keep his hands off the Welshman. Making up a lame excuse that he had been outside without a jumper and was cold, he couldn't quite believe Jack had bought it, but it meant he had dedicated the rest of the evening to warming him up, all in all, not a bad evening.  
He smiled and blushed slightly at the memory as he stuffed all thoughts of the phone call out of his mind.

He knew he would have to talk to Jack about it, hell he wanted to talk to him about it. First things first though, he thought as sniffed the air, shower, then penance and then he would talk to Jack.

********************

The list Jack had left him was long and mundane. Designed, Ianto figured, to keep him busy and as far away from Owen as was physically possible in the Hub. The Medic had been missing for the best part of the afternoon and Ianto had assumed he had bunked off early until he heard humming coming from the autopsy bay and with one glance he confirmed the medic's presence.

Turning away, Ianto concentrated on his list.

Only 6 more things to go. Feed Janet and Myfanwy, restock the Tourist Centre's brochure rack, wash the SUV, finish Jack's report to UNIT and make Jack coffee. Although Ianto figured there was so much more in the last 2 requests for Jack than a punishment for nearly killing Owen.

He didn't have to look up from the list to tell that Jack was looking at them from his office. Jack....the wild card, the one person he was finding increasingly difficult to keep himself hidden from, not that he was even sure he wanted to stay hidden from Jack anymore.

He had always maintained he hated it when Jack got all overseer on them, but secretly he loved the thought of being leered at until the grown up in him shook his head.

Growling at himself he muttered under his breath,  
"What are you? A horny teenager? Get a grip Jones and get back to work."

And he departed for the cells to a hungry Janet.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

******It was late by the time Ianto had made it to the last item on his list….coffee for Jack.**

******Jack watched as Ianto emerged from the Tourist office and moved to the coffee machine, brewing only his second pot for the day. Jack had sent the others home about an hour earlier and had been patiently waiting for the young man to resurface. Now standing by his trusty coffee machine Jack could no longer resist watching from afar and left his office to join him.**

**"****Hey" Jack called softly**

**"****Sir?" Ianto turned around to face him, a small smile on his face.**

**"****Just on the last item of the list as requested Sir…..your coffee." Ianto added when the puzzled look fell on Jack's face.**

******Jack grinned back at him, "Pour yourself one Yan, you and me are officially off the clock so drop the Sir, time you and me had a chat"**

**"****Would love to Sir……sorry Jack, but I still have a clean up in the archives."**

******Jack shook his head.**

**"****No need Yan, it's all done……..you didn't think I wouldn't give Owen a list too?" Jack added, noting this time the quizzical look on the young man's face.**

**"****So I definitely need to go re-clean the archives?"**

**"****Yan, believe me, this is one thing Owen made sure was clean, last thing he would want is a pissed of Welshman after his blood for shoddy workmanship."**

**Jack was grinning again, the grin that always made Ianto feel like his head was spinning 3 feet above his head.**

******Jack leaned into Ianto so his lips were almost touching him as he whispered……..**

**"****So, you, me, coffee, couch, and ****that ********is an order" **

******And with that Jack walked away and sat himself down on the couch in wait as Ianto made his way to the coffee machine to pour his own cup.**

******Ianto took longer than necessary with his own cup of coffee; he found it hard to keep his head when talking to Jack and he wanted all of his wits about him. He made his way and sat down next to Jack sighing as he inhaled his coffee first before taking his first sip. **

******Jack eyed him with interest.**

**"****Why do you do that?"**

**"****Do what?" Ianto now directing his attention to Jack.**

**"****Inhaling before you drink"**

**"****To appreciate the taste more, the smell reminds me of my home, when I was a kid my Tad would always have coffee brewing and the smell….just reminds me of home. Besides, at least I actually taste the coffee, I doubt yours is in your mouth long enough to touch your taste buds!"**

******Jack just chuckled and resumed drinking his own coffee, being sure to hold it in his mouth a little longer than normal, he really had to hand it to the Welsh, well this Welshman anyway, the coffee was…divine.**

******They enjoyed the companionable silence until the last of the coffee was drained. Jack set aside his cup and watched as Ianto nervously played with the cup in his hands. When Jack could take it no longer he reached out and took the cup out of his hands and set it next to his own.**

******Next he took Ianto's hands in his, rubbing thumbs over callouses. Without making eye contact Jack asked his next question very carefully.**

**"****You know, I have seen Owen push you farther than I thought anyone could ever be pushed. I have seen him pull every schoolboy prank in the unwritten naughty school boy book without so much as a raised eyebrow from you, why was today the day you snapped? And don't give me that quiet rift excuse, I know you better than that and I didn't buy it this afternoon and I am not going to buy it now."**

******As Jack finished he looked into Ianto's eyes to find they where matching his stare. **

******Ianto cleared his throat and looked down at the hands intertwined in his own. He spoke evenly and carefully.**

**"****Last night I got a call………..from David Thomas"**

******Jack stared at him with his mouth slowly ajar.**

**"****David Thomas? Second director Torchwood London David Thomas?" **

******Ianto nodded**

**"****But….I don't understand Ianto I thought he was dead, he was on the manifest."**

**"****He is, was……I mean I thought he was dead too. I saw him get led with a group to the chambers, no-one to my knowledge was meant to have survived from that …." **

******Ianto's voice had died away in his throat and he found he couldn't look at Jack, couldn't finish his sentance. He cast his gaze down at the intertwined hand in his and it comfortably squeezed his own.**

**"****What did he call you for?"**

******Ianto hesitated for just a second…**

**"****He just said he was checking up on all the survivors, see how we are doing."**

**"****And?"**

**"****And……….nothing. That was it, just said he wanted to chat. Talked to me about his health, asked me how I was, talked about Wales' chances in the World Cup and then wished me goodnight"**

**"****So that is all? That's what had you on edge today?"**

**"****Well, that's just it Jack, in all my time at London, Assistant Director David Thomas never so much as glanced in my direction let alone ask me personally how I was. It was just…..odd. In the call he never once asked me about Torchwood 3 and he couldn't give me straight answer where he got my number from…."**

******Jack cut him off.**

**"****Hang on a minute, when did you get this call?"**

******Ianto took a deep breath and decided to look sheepish.**

**"****About 15 minutes before you stopped by last night"**

**"****Ianto why didn't…" Ianto held up his hand to cut Jack off before he got into full tirade mode.**

**"****I just needed some time to process it, it caught me unawares and the more I thought about it the more it seemed to bug me about how unusual it was." **

******Jack regarded him for a moment and then seemed satisfied with the answer.**

**"****So, what do you want to do about it?"**

******Ianto sighed**

**"****What can I do? I mean it could just be a legitimate call about catching up, I don't know, but my instincts…"**

**"****Are screaming all kinds of wrong huh?"**

******Ianto nodded and said,**

**"****Until he contacts again, well if he contacts again, then we will see."**

**"****Okay, but any further contact you tell me straight away ok?"**

**"****Yep, straight away, and I will apologise to Owen first thing, I really didn't mean to lose it like that"**

**"****You will do no such thing, Owen had it coming and then some. Just promise me you will tell me if he contacts you?"**

**"****I will Jack, I promise"**

**"****Ok, matter closed. So where are you taking me for Dinner?"**

******Jack grinned, bringing Ianto's hand up to his lips to place a kiss on the back of it.**

**"****Little Italian round the corner?"**

**"****Sounds good. I'll just convert the rift monitor over and grab my coat."**

******Ianto took the coffee cups and rinsed them in the kitchenette. He felt better letting Jack know about the phone call and he had the distinct feeling it wasn't going to be the last.**

******They took the short walk to the Italian restaurant in peaceful silence. Jack occasionally stole glances at Ianto as they walked along. He had been getting that feeling, a strong feeling like something was brewing and he couldn't help but think now it was centered around this man somehow and on shadows of their collective pasts.**

******Jack had no doubt that David Thomas was up to no good and he made a promise to himself he would be watching his Ianto very carefully from now on.**

**"****Stop it Jack"**

**"****What?" Jack paused in his stride in mock innocence.**

******Ianto rolled his eyes and sighed..**

**"****Jack, I know what you are thinking and…"**

**"****Ianto you can stop right there. If you think for one minute I am not going to take this seriously then you don't know me as well as I think you do. You should know there is no use fighting me on this; I will be keeping a very close eye on you Ianto Jones" **

******Seductively he pulled the younger man to his chest and added in a whisper that left nothing to the imagination.**

**"****A very close eye" closing the final distance between them Jack kissed him, running his tongue over his lips and breaching his mouth as he felt Ianto's lips respond, granting him access as he explored his mouth with a passionate fervor that left Ianto promises of things to come. Once the kiss was broken Ianto was left with his head spinning.**

******Once Ianto found his voice he replied,**

******"Well when you put it like that, how can I refuse?"**

******Jack laughed and placed a quick kiss on his forehead as they resumed their walk, hands intertwined.**

******That, Jack thought, was a dirty trick. Nice to know that the Harkness kiss still worked a charm. He knew Ianto would be hard to convince regarding the kind of surveillance Jack wanted to use but the subterfuge he felt was justified. There was something distinctly not right about this and he would use any means at his disposal to protect his own.**

******Ianto knew Jack was using all the dirty tricks to distract him. He knew Jack as overprotective but Ianto knew firsthand the pain of losing people to this job so he could hardly blame him. Who was he to deny Jack a little peace of mind and if he was honest about it, he himself had a slightly uneasy feeling about Thomas' attention. It couldn't hurt to have Jack in his corner on this one.**


	4. Chapter 4

Toshiko Sato was surprised when she got into work the next morning to find she had to let herself into the small tourist office entrance.  
She stepped over the threshold of the entrance door and noticed a large brown envelope that looked like someone had slipped under the door. Overloaded with her handbag, laptop and lunch she juggled all three carefully as she bent down to pick it up and noted it was addressed to Ianto. Shoving it between her teeth she triggered the door to the Hub and moved inside.

After dumping her gear she placed the envelope on Ianto's desk and looked around the Hub, taking a few moments to register the silence. God how she loved the silence, best time to work on complex equations, no interruptions by people who had no clue what she did.

It was unusual to find the Hub deserted. Granted it was 6.30am but usually there is at least Jack whistling in his room, or the smell of freshly brewed coffee from kitchen by Ianto. Not thinking too much on it Tosh assumed they had stayed at Ianto's.

Smiling to herself she was pleased the two men seemed to be getting on so well, at least two of them where getting some, she sighed at her lack of a social life, sometimes it felt like there was this job and nothing else.

While she waited for her workstation to fire up she boiled the kettle to make herself some green tea, not wanting to cloud her head yet with too much caffeine, besides, Ianto had ruined them all when it came to coffee.

Settling in at her workstation she started up the program she had been working on since early yesterday. Only a few more minor tweaks and it would be ready.

She hadn't bothered to explain it to anyone yet; the blank looks and nods of mock understanding made Tosh almost feel sorry for them, although she wasn't above noticing the occasional looks of pity they flashed her way.

After her encounter with Mary and the pendant, after hearing what they thought of her, she had tried to reconcile in her head that she had been treated like that and worse all her life, it seemed it was something she projected. The nerd who understood everything, yet got nothing.

So what if she was uncomfortable in the social scene, if her clothes weren't quite right, she could do obscene things with technology and science most people hadn't thought of and that was more than enough for Tosh to level out any social playing field.

Ianto, she thought, was one of the few people who even remotely had a chance of understanding her. She had been meaning to run through this new program with him yesterday but he had seemed a little distracted, well nearly killing Owen wasn't just a little distracted. She hoped today would be better and whatever it was that made him snap had been something Jack had been able to help him with.

Even though Tosh would have wanted to kill Owen herself if he had tried that on her, Ianto didn't normally rise to him.

The thought of killing Owen had crossed all of their minds at some point. Still, there was something about the medic that seemed to work under Tosh's skin, hell she had the highest IQ of anyone she knew and yet she felt like a gibbering idiot most of the time around him.

Underneath all that bluff there was a genuine human, a caring genuine human with just a hint of a bad guy and who doesn't love a bad guy.

Shaking herself she turned her attention back to the program, just a few more tweaks and she will have perfected a way to track alien energy signals from anywhere. With the help of an alien power source she had enough long range power to scan further into space than any scanners in UNIT or NASA. This program could scan any potential threat at 5 times the range of the most powerful scanner the government had. If any threat appeared in the skies or from under the earth, Torchwood would be the first to know.

She left the program to run a few more diagnostics and turned her attention to another computer to the left of her as she ran the security check that she did every day.

She knew with complete certainty that no-one would be able to break her security firewalls but it always paid to be vigilant. After the first preliminary checks ran through with no anomalies it seemed it was going to be just another day at the office as such , when an alarm sounded indicating a possible breach Tosh swore out loud.

"What the hell is this?"

For a moment Tosh thought it must have been a glitch in the program, but then knew that was unlikely, it was her program. Shaking her head even more she ran her fingers over the keyboard to try and find the source of the breach.

"There! What the hell?"

It looked like someone had tried to hack into the systems and it was a pretty good attempt by the looks of it.

She sighed as she found that whoever had tried had not gotten any further that the first firewall, still it begged the question about what they were after, and how the hell they knew about them in the first place. All thoughts of her program where gone as she settled down to investigate the source of the hack.

Jack would be in soon and she needed to go to him with answers.

tbc


	5. Chapter 5

7.30am and the alarm sounded as the cog door rolled open.

"Ianto it's only 7.30, I would hardly call that late and besides, I've heard the boss here is very understanding"

Jack grabbed Ianto around the waist drawing his back closer to his chest, nuzzling into his neck.

"Jack, not here"

Jack just grinned as he felt Ianto relax to his touch.

"Your mouth is saying no but your body…….."

"Hmmmmmm"

Ianto groaned as Jack laid kisses along his neck.

"Please Jack, not here"

Smiling Jack released him.

"Fair enough, but hold that thought for later"

"What did you have in mind?"

"You'll see!"

Jack bounded ahead of Ianto as the young man made his way to the kitchenette to start the first brew of the day.

"Good Morning Tosh" Jack exclaimed.

Tosh ignored him, engrossed in her terminal.

Jack sighed, he admired her dedication but sometimes he did worry she had lost herself to this place. Then again who was he kidding, they had all lost themselves to this way of life.

Jack placed himself in front of Tosh and leant up against the desk, now facing the scientist.

"Morning Tosh"

"Huh?"

She looked up, noticing him for the first time.

"Oh Jack, I didn't hear you come in."

"Whatchya doin?"

"Jack, I need to talk to you. I was running diagnostic on the firewall and someone has tried to hack in and get access to our files"

The grin slid off Jack's face.

"What? I……that's…"

"Not possible I know"

"Did they get through?"

"You are joking right? My system is infallible, no-one can get through that, there are firewalls after firewalls, it's….."

Jack held up his hand in surrender

"Ok I get it, you're brilliant."

She blushed but recovered enough to deflect the comment.

"I've been tracking it for the last hour; I'd like to show you what I have?"

"My office, now."

They started to move off as Ianto entered with coffee. Jack took his inhaling first before sipping at the brown liquid. Ianto just smirked.

"Tosh?" He offered the cup to her. She hesitated for a moment before deciding, screw it, she had a feeling it was definitely going to be a caffeine day.

As she moved off she turned when she remembered.

"Oh Ianto there is an envelope I found this morning addressed to you I left it on your desk"

Jack turned sharply, looking from Ianto to his desk where he could make out the brown envelope. Ianto shook his head slightly and thanked whatever deity was out there that Jack got the hint.

"Come on Tosh, you have something I need to see."

"Bet that's what all the boys say." Ianto smiled but Jack could see his heart wasn't in it.

Jack's bad feeling he had was growing and he would bet everything he owned that all of this was just the beginning of something bigger.

Up in his office he motioned Tosh to sit taking his own seat behind his desk.

"So Tosh what have ya got?"

"Well it looks like someone tried to hack into the system from a remote server."

"When was this?"

"Last night about 9.10pm"

An icy feeling passed through Jack. 5 minutes after he and Ianto left the Hub.

"Can you tell where it originated?"

"I'm still running a tracking program but I don't like our chances Jack, they may not have been able to get in but they sure as hell covered their tracks well."

"Can you tell what they were after?"

"Not sure, I'll let you know if anything comes up."

Jack nodded.

Knowing that the meeting was over Tosh got up to return to her workstation. As she made her way out of Jack's office she nearly ran straight into Ianto.

Slightly out of breath he asked her,

"Tosh where did you find the envelope?"

"Ummm..looked like someone had slipped it under the door of the tourist office."

She looked at Ianto sharply as she suddenly realized something was wrong.

"What is it?"

Ianto smiled at her.

"Nothing….just something I need to speak to Jack about"

Sensing a dismissal Tosh made her way out of the office as Jack had risen from his chair in order to shut the door before following Ianto back to the desk and once again taking his position behind his desk. He took in the sight of the Welshman. A frown was creasing his brow; he saw a worry building behind his eyes.

"Ianto what is it?"

Ianto pushed the contents of the envelope towards Jack as he registered the look of horror on Jack's face.

"What the hell?" Jack stared at the contents.

Photos upon photos of Ianto, Ianto and Jack, Ianto and Gwen, Ianto and all of them…..surveillance photos, some Jack recognized from quite a few weeks ago telling him that this had been going on for a while.

So intent on staring at the photos he only just registered Ianto get to his feet and start pacing the office.

"What the hell is going on Jack?"

Ianto was pacing up and down, a hand running through his hair while one was on his hip.

"I don't know Yan"

"Shit Jack!"

Ianto's voice grew louder as finally Jack tore his gaze from the photos to Ianto.

"Hey…"

Jack was up in an instant as he placed his hands at Ianto's shoulders to still his pacing.

"Jack.…"

"Hey we will figure it out"

Ianto hung his head as softly he whispered,

"I will never be free of them."

Ianto had uttered the word so softly Jack had almost missed it.

"What?"

Jack drew back to look at his face, making Ianto meet his gaze.

"David Thomas, London. It can't be just a coincidence."

"Hey Yan, we will figure it out ok. No one messes with any of my employees, 'specially not you. Besides who's to say it has anything to do with London?"

"You are a horrible liar Jack"

"Ahh but it is only you that can pick the lie."

Jack lifted his hand from his shoulder to brush his thumb over his face.

Ianto smiled as he pulled away from Jack, reaching for the empty cup on Jack's desk.

Jack in turn had to smile at the gesture.

"So what did Tosh want?"

Knowing there was no use sugar coating it Jack decided that the best approach was a direct one.

"Someone tried to hack into our systems last night."

Jack watched as Ianto stiffened.

He turned to face Jack; the look of fear in his eyes betrayed the half smile he had plastered to his face.

"This has London written all over it Jack, you know it and I know it, and I don't believe in coincidence. I'll get a refill and get Tosh to pull CCTV data from last night"

And with that Ianto left Jack with the surveillance photos and took the coffee cup for a refill.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

By the time Ianto walked back down the stairs Owen and Gwen had arrived for work.

"Morning Ianto" Gwen cheerfully called

"Morning Gwen"

He stepped into the kitchenette to renew the brew he had done earlier.

Concentrating on the coffee pot he was slightly startled when a hand slipped a double chocolate chip muffin on the side of the cupboard. Ianto span around, slightly open mouthed when he locked eyes with Owen.

He gathered himself to launch into an apology when he was cut off.

"Look Teaboy, you know I'm a shit, not happy unless I am stirring something…." Owen cast his eyes to the ground. Ianto was astounded, the medic was actually embarrassed.

"Just wanted to say sorry ok."

Owen motioned to the muffin and appeared to be waiting for some sort of recognition from the young Welshman.

Sensing his discomfort Ianto toyed evilly with the idea of not letting him off the hook so easily. The level of Owen's discomfort was palpable but Ianto found he really didn't have it in him today for the slow torture Owen deserved.

He nodded and Owen took his chance to back out quickly leaving a very bemused teaboy to finish the brew.

As if on cue Jack emerged from his office, his booming baritone addressing his team.

"OK, team meeting, conference room, 5 minutes. Tosh, bring your report, Ianto bring coffee."

Loading up the tray with the steaming coffee Ianto made his way to the conference room to join the others.

He felt the pit in his stomach as he took his place in his chair to the right of Jack. As he sat he noticed the brown envelope, its contents seemed to be burning out at him through envelope's walls.

"OK team, we have a possible situation on our hands. Tosh?"

Jack motioned for the Japanese woman to take over.

"Ok, last night we had someone try to hack into our computer systems…"

"Fuck! Did they get through?"

"Through my firewall? Owen are you serious?..."

Sensing a tirade Jack stepped in.

"Ok, Tosh so what have you got so far?"

"At 9.10 last night someone attempted to hack into the system. They managed to get through the first 3 firewalls but that is as far as they got. The fact that they managed to get through that much suggests they know what they were doing. I am going through the firewall program to add another layer, just in case."

"What about tracking them?"

"I'm on it Jack but they covered their tracks well. I don't like my chances of tracking it back to one particular source PC as such, you would need a pretty powerful machine so I will see if I can cross reference that with draws on the power grid at the same time, I might be able to narrow it down to a particular area."

Jack nodded.

Before he broached the next subject he locked eyes with Ianto, silently looking for approval.

At a nod from the younger man Jack drew breath and began.

"Ok, a letter was left at the tourist office last night addressed to Ianto."

Jack pulled the contents out and spread the photos out on the table.

Gwen, Owen and Tosh all picked up a few of the photos. Owen let out a low whistle,

"Wow, someone is being overzealous with the holiday snaps."

"It's us" Gwen stared in mock horror.

"No, it's Ianto" Tosh replied.

Gwen picked up a few more photos this time just of Ianto. In fact looking at the photos his face seemed to stare out from all of them.

Gwen felt decidedly queasy at the sight, she glanced over to Ianto who was making a conscious effort not to look at the table and she could not imagine what it felt like for him to see this laid out in front of all of them.

She looked over to Jack who was also watching the young man with close interest.

She looked back down to the photos, noticing just how many of them where of Ianto and Jack. Not that it was that surprising, Jack was hardly subtle when it came to Ianto, it was just...........she always imagined Jack as a lone wolf, an untouchable, a safe fantasy when home got too boring and it never hurt to have a fantasy as long as that was all it ever was.

Gwen knew how she would feel if it was Rhys laid out for all to see, she knew they needed to approach this methodically, like a police operation and she knew how hard it was to seperate the personal from the professional.

Clearing her throat she directed her question to Jack.

"So, have we checked CCTV yet?"

Pulling his gaze from Ianto, Jack silently thanked Gwen for directing him to what needed to be done.

"Not yet, Tosh can you pull the footage from last night. Ianto, can you check it over, see if you recognize anyone. Gwen I need you to run a background trace on a David Thomas, he's the strongest lead we have …"

"Jack I really think I….."

Jack shook his head at Ianto.

"No, Gwen I need you on this, I need you to do a thorough workup on him. Approach it like the tenacious cop you are. I wanna know everything, and I mean everything. I have basic personal details I will give you; but I need you to go from there. Owen I need you to pull his medical files, put all the information together and I you have three hours people, so away to work with you"

Gwen, Tosh and Owen departed the conference room as Ianto started to gather the photos. Jack watched as he studied them, he watched as Ianto's brow furrowed, he watched as he sensed a shift in the young man and he watched while he started laying the photos out in a semblance of order

He was still watching 10 minutes later when Ianto had finished and all the photos were laid out on the table. He had to admit he was impressed to see how fast Ianto could order all of these seemingly random moments in time, but here it was, a portrait of a young Welshman in technicolour.

Ianto moved back from the table as if studying the whole picture, Jack moved to join him so that they now stood shoulder to shoulder.

"What do you see Ianto?"

"Me"

"What else?"

"Not what……who"

Ianto picked up a few of the photos handing them to Jack and points to a figure of a man in each photo.

A realization dawns on Jack as he asks,

"David Thomas?"

Nodding his head Ianto replied,

"Yep"

Checking the photos Jack confirms the man is in most of the photos seemingly stalking Ianto, but it seems that he had a little stalking problem of his own.

"I think it is time we watched a little closed circuit TV huh?"

"I'll make the popcorn" Ianto replied with a wry smile, doing nothing to hide his discomfort and wariness.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Tosh had routed the CCTV feed to the monitor in Jack's office. If there was anything on the footage that Ianto noticed he wanted him to be somewhere a little more private than in the middle of the Hub.

Ianto sat on the edge of Jack's desk and started tracking the footage starting from when him and Jack had left the Hub.

"We look good together"

Jack said as he sidled up to Ianto.

Ianto smiled.

Jack had joined him on the edge of the desk sitting closer than necessary, not that he minded.

"Ever thought about jeans for a change?"

"Couldn't have you distracted Sir, the world would never be saved."

"Why the suit Ianto?"

"What?"

"I mean you're young it'd just not many people your age would be wearing a three piece tailored suit to work, and you have to admit, you have a great butt for jeans."

Ianto just snorted and shook his head but never let his eyes wander from the screen.

"You remember when we first met and you offered me the job?"

"I wouldn't exactly say offered, makes it sound like I had a choice."  
"Well you remember what you said, about the suit?"

Jack nodded and a smile dripped across his face as the recall of his request to the young man came flooding back.

"There's that….also it reminds me of my Tad."

"Ahh yes, the inside leg man."

Ianto nodded, Jack watched as a wistful look graced his features.

Jack understood.

He understood the need to be close to things that had been lost in whatever way was possible.

Jack's own wardrobe had been a reflection of that.

Nodding his head jack said,

"I get it. I really do but seriously Yan, much as I love the suits….and believe me I LOVE the suit…."

"There!" Ianto cut Jack off.

Quickly he rewound the footage so he could play it back frame by frame.

Jack watched a figure walked up to the door, whoever it was they were small, either female or a young boy. It was impossible to tell who it was as they had covered up well.

The whole scene only took a few seconds, the figure was cautious, blended in well and much to Jack's annoyance they were no closer in getting answers on this.

Ianto kept rewinding the footage and played it again, hoping to pick up on something helpful.

Jack watched as it replayed back and forth and back and forth. Finally he couldn't take it any longer. Reaching over he grabbed Ianto's hands from the keyboard.

"Ianto, there is nothing there."

"No Jack, wait"

He wrenched his hands from Jack's and back to the keyboard.

Jack watched a little helplessly as Ianto froze the frame of footage he was obsessing about. It was at the moment that the person had leaned down and slipped the envelope under the door.

Ianto focused the program on the hand that was uncovered, he highlighted this and enlarged. He waited for the image to clean up and peered closer to the screen.

"Ianto what is it?"

"There."

He pointed at the hand to the ring finger highlighting a beautiful silver Celtic patterned ring.

Breathlessly he looked up at Jack with a look of bewilderment on his face.

"I know who it is Jack."

"Who?"

"Riley Jenkins."

Now Ianto had a broad grin on his face that left Jack puzzled.

"And is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Oh I think it's safe to say it is better than the alternative"

Jack regarded him with a creased brow that echoed confusion and caution.

"Ianto I have a feeling you owe me a story"

*************************************************************************************

Jack was waiting in his office for Ianto to return from the archives where he had gone to retrieve the file on Riley Jenkins. He watched as he saw Gwen ascend the stairs on her way to his office. A light knock on the door and he waved her inside motioning for her to take a seat.

"Finished your bloodhound search already PC Cooper?"

Jack asked with raised eyebrows.

"Not quite Jack"

Jack sensed her hesitation.

"So what is it Gwen?"

"David Thomas? Is this him?"

Gwen passed a photo across the desk, a head shot of a neatly pressed, manicured man. He was the type of man that made Jack uneasy, practically oozing charm and suave enough for a bad daytime soapie.

Nodding Jack replied,

"Oh yes, that is the oily specimen himself. Where did you get this?"

"It was on the database. Assistant Director Torchwood One."

"That would be him. Gwen I'm sensing there is something else here?"

"I know him, I've seen him before."

Jack's eyes widened.

"Where? Lately?"

"No it was just before you recruited me. We were called to investigate a domestic disturbance, one of his neighbors had called it in, when we got there he met us at the front door, oozing charm. We got let in and he gave us a tour of his place. He was pretty well off from what I remember. There was this……lab, well he called it his lab, out the back, but really it was more like a workshop. There were bits of machinery, computers lying around. I mean I'm no technical expect but it seemed like circuit board, bits of computers, that sort of thing."

"All seems a bit innocent Gwen."

Jack was eying her carefully, turning over in his mind what she had said.

"Why is it something you still remember?"

"He was way too smooth Jack…and a little too eager to show off his toys"

"Toys?"

"He had this………….hand.""

"Well I'm presuming he had two of them Gwen?"

"No, not his hands…_.__**a**_hand"

Jack felt the lion in his stomach shifting as puzzle pieces threatened to fit into place.

"He had a little remote control and the hand, it moved, not really realistic like…….but it was a bit creepy, he was a bit creepy. Jack, is this…….do you think that London…what happened at Canary Wharf…"

Jack cut her off.

"No! No that was……" Jacks eyes where far away.

"It was different, just different. Look, finish your profile and see what you can dig up."

Jack swallowed hard, eyes locked with Gwen's as she made to leave the office with a nod to Jack.

As she reached the door Jack called out.

"Oh and Gwen?"

She paused and turned towards him.

"Not a word to anyone about the hand…..not yet anyway."

She nodded and made her way down the stairs back to the world of David Thomas.

tbc


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks to everyone who has been following this story, providing encouraging feedback and who have added this one to their favourites! **

**It is very encouraging to know I am on the right path. Any feedback is always welcomed and needed! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!**

Ianto made his way back to Jack's office with the file on Riley.

He paused at the top of the stairs to watch the other three as they set about the tasks that had been delegated earlier that morning.

Tosh focused her intense study on the monitors before her, Owen seemed knee deep in conversation with Gwen as they built their profile of David.

He had to admit it was a good feeling to have these people on his side, backing him up. He knew they did it on Jack's orders, he knew they did it for the greater good of Torchwood but a part of him wanted to believe they would do it for him.

It had been so long since he had belonged anywhere, since he had felt like a part of something that was good. When he thought about it the last person who had made him feel like that it was Riley, in a time before when he actually had believed what they were doing in London was for the greater good.

"We will figure this out Yan"

Jack had come out of his office and was now standing close to Ianto.

"I know" He said quietly.

"Ianto?" Jack said warningly as he spun him around so that he now had the young man's eyes staring back into his own. They weren't as clear as they normally would have been; there was a cloud over them that Jack never liked to see.

Ianto sighed and smiled just a little. Indicating to the folder he nodded his head towards Jack's office.

"Come on, like you said, I owe you a story"

Jack followed Ianto into his office and closed the door behind him.

Taking up position behind his desk he watched as Ianto opened the file and arranged the documents on the desk in front of Jack.

It was a personnel file from Torchwood London. The photo of a young vivacious woman shone out from amongst the normal HR material.

From the photo you could tell she was not a classic beauty but had some spark behind those eyes and on the quirky features on her face, Jack always liked people like that.

She had an interesting face, her short hair seemed to have a direction of its own, green eyes that glinted with a hint of mischief. The name had not meant anything to Jack but the eyes, he remembered the eyes.

"I recognize her. Tech head from Torchwood One?"

Ianto nodded.

"When I heard she had left I offered her a job, she turned me down flat."

"Wow that must have been a knock to the ego sir?"

"Funny Yan, shame though, I had a feeling she could have been brilliant."

"She was Jack, just brilliant."

And Ianto lowered himself into the chair opposite Jack who was watching his face carefully.

"I remember my first day in Torchwood 1, I was recruited straight from UNI as a junior researcher. I remember being so nervous that first day, it was my first proper job and I really didn't want to mess it up, the paycheck was good and I really had enough of sleeping rough. I was assigned to her as her personal assistant. So she was the first person that I met properly. She kinda took me under her wing, showed me the ropes, taught me some stuff too and like I said, she was brilliant, give Tosh a run for her money."

"I met up with her not long after her husband had died, I assume he was the reason she left London?"

Ianto's face had clouded.

"Another love lost to Torchwood, that was bad Jack, and it was the first time I think that it showed me what sort of people I was working for. She and Connor had been tracking the time shifts; they could see things were not right. They were working on building a case on Yvonne and David to get them removed before things got worse,WeI had been helping them collate the information, me and Lisa and somehow they got wind of the plan. I mean it was never proven but the mission they sent him on, it was weird Jack. There was no way he should have died on that mission. And she…..she was ripped apart by that grief. She tried to bring them down with the information she had against them but they shut her down, discredited her and made sure she never stepped foot back in the building let alone London. I met up with her a few times after she left, fed her some information, but then the shit hit the fan, I lost touch with her."

"Ianto, how did you recognize her from just her hand?"

The youngman sighed as a sad smile played on his lips.

"The ring, it was their 5th year anniversary that day, the day he died and he had given it to her that morning, something like that, hard to forget."

A burning behind Ianto's eyes threatened to overtake him, he decided that was all the information Jack needed, all the information he was willing to share.

Sensing the melancholy in his lover Jack knew that the story was over. He decided to steer the conversation back to more practical matters giving the man something else to focus on.

"So, if she has planted these it would be what? A warning?"

Taking a deep breath in Ianto considered his reply.

"I guess, to her he was responsible for Connor's death, he was the one who ordered the mission. I mean if David survived Canary Wharf it would be logical she has been tracking him. It's what I would do, and **IF **he has been tracking me I think this is an attempt at a warning by her."

Ianto now gazed at the floor as he felt Jack's considered gaze directed at him.

"Can you get in touch with her?"

Ianto shook his head.

"No, she always contacted me. I have a couple of e-mail addresses I can try but usually when and if she wants to contact, she will."

Ianto was still looking at the carpet and hadn't noticed Jack leave his chair until a short, squat glass with amber liquid was being offered to him. He took it gratefully taking a small sip as Jack placed a soft kiss on his forehead. Ianto held the glass up, regarding the liquid for a moment before draining the glass.

Jack stood by his side and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently as a small voice called gently from the door.

"Jack?"

The voice broke the moment as Jack span around to see Tosh.

"If you are ready I have finished the trace, not that it is much good to us, and Gwen and Owen are ready to present."

Jack nodded.

"Thanks Tosh, give us 10 and meet in the conference room."

Tosh nodded and left.

Ianto stood and as he did Jack grabbed his arm and motioned for him to remain seated.

"There is something else, something you should know before we go in."

Ianto shot him a cautious look,

"I'm not going to like this am I Jack?"

Jack sighed and reached for his hand.

"Gwen came to see me while you were in the archives. She remembered meeting Thomas at a callout she got as a PC and I don't want you to hear it for the first time in that meeting, I know you don't like getting caught off guard."

"Jack, just tell me"

Ianto was working hard to keep his emotions out of his voice; Jack squeezed his hand slightly and continued.

"It was a noise disturbance or something. Anyway she remembers going through his workshop and him showing off his new toy, something he called a cyber hand, equipped with a remote control."

Jack watched as colour drained from Ianto's face and his hands tense beneath his own. Jack stood and not breaking the hand contact he pulled Ianto onto his feet and gathered him in a tight embrace.

For a moment he felt Ianto stiffen until he relaxed into Jack, burying his head against his shoulder.

"We will get to the bottom of this Yan and you will not have to get through it this time on your own. That is a promise I will make to you."

Ianto pulled out of Jack's embrace slightly, looking into Jack's face he believed him and he nodded in his gratitude.

"Come on, you make the coffee and I'll meet you in the conference room"

Placing a small kiss on his lips he released Ianto and turned back to his desk to gather up the file as Ianto walked out of his office and descended the stairs.

Once he was sure Ianto was out of sight Jack let out a sigh and ran his hand over his face as he sank back into his chair and hoped like hell that however this turned out, he was going to be able to keep that promise.

tbc


	9. Chapter 9

"Ok kids, what have we got?"

Ianto was handing out coffees as Gwen was bringing up a photo of David Thomas on the screen before them.

"Ok, David Thomas born 18th July 1952 in Bristol, raised in London. Has a degree in Business Science and run 3 very successful companies, the last one involved in cybernetics. He ran a tight ship from all accounts, most if it looking very legitimate."

The picture changed to David Thomas and a group of others in front of the Torchwood building in was surrounded by 4 others that Ianto automatically counted them off in his head as Gwen continued talking.

He knew this story, most of it anyway. As a researcher under Riley Jenkins she had taught him to do his homework, know thy enemy.

As he faded back to the conversation he felt rather than saw Jack's eyes were on him. He focused back on Gwen, shifting uncomfortably as he picked up his pen as a cover to note something down feeling awkward under his gaze.

Jack got the hint and was now himself focused back on Gwen.

"He was headhunted by the Torchwood corporation in the late 90's where he ran the research department, strictly recall and reapply. Assimilating alien technology for use in the mainstream for the greater good."

Ianto snorted as they all stared at him. Vaguely aware of the stares he looked up.

"What? Come on you didn't have to work there to know they were not looking for a cure for world hunger or anything. Everyone in that department had a manifest to look for one thing only……….the next weapon."

Gwen took her cue from Jack to continue as he nodded his head in her direction without taking his eyes off Ianto again until she started talking once more.

"Ok, it seemed that after the battle he disappeared, thought to be among the dead, well he is listed among the dead but…"

At this she hesitated, glancing up and Ianto then at Jack looking for a cue.

"Go on Gwen."

"2 years ago he resurfaced in Cardiff, started a small company in small time surveillance, running in home security systems that sort of thing. I've already told Jack, but I met him on a callout in my days as a PC. It was for noise disturbance, neighbor complaint. He was the most oily, smooth man I have ever met and he took great delight in showing off his latest electronic toys. It seemed he was working on some kind of in home help robot. It was pretty out there, looked like there was no way it could ever move let alone do the hoovering. Anyway, from here seems to have fallen off the radar and has been pretty quiet for the last 6 months, his security business seems to have gone out of existence and the trail seems to have run cold. I do have his last known address so Owen and I thought we could check it out?"

Jack nodded.

"Any lead we can follow up on right now is a plus. Ok, Tosh, what did you get from the trace?"

"They've covered their tracks well, they looked to have used a scrubber to cover their tracks but I am following a ghost trail back to a multi server…"

"Tosh?" Owen interrupted…."English please."

Slightly flustered she continued

"The trail ends at a big communal server where it is impossible to trace back to any one source. Sorry Jack"

Jack nodded.

"So that brings us back to the photos. Ianto?"

Jack watched as Ianto recounted a watered down version of the Riley Jenkins story he had told. Once he had finished Jack gave his orders for Gwen and Owen to check out the house David had been living in. Tosh resumed her fine tweaking project for the energy rift.

"Ianto, you're with me."

anto raised an eyebrow at the request as the others left the room.

Jack simply cut him off before he had a chance to roll his eyes or open his mouth.

"We have to go and check something out and I don't think I want any of the others around when we do."

"Doesn't normally bother you Sir..." Ianto replied dryly.

Jack leered at him with a lewd smile.

"Ah now you're just putting thoughts in my head and as much fun as that is, not exactly what I had in mind for now. Believe me, for where we are going and knowing you as well as I do, you will not want an audience for this."

Jack's tone was serious and Ianto felt like he was freefalling. He hated not being in control; whoever was doing this knew where to hit him and what to do it with to make him feel vulnerable. He felt blindsided as parts of his life he thought he had buried had suddenly made their way to the surface.

As if sensing his disquiet Jack stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder squeezing slightly, pulling him out of his reverie.

"Come on, I'll meet you at the SUV, couple of things I gotta grab first."

He pulled Ianto up and pushed him out of the door.

*******************

Jack pulled into the street where Ianto's flat was. The young man had not said a word for the entire journey.

He pulled the SUV up outside of his flat.

Finally Ianto spoke,

"What are we doing here Jack?"

"I brought some surveillance sweepers to do a check of your apartment for bugs. I wanna see how far this has gone."

Jack hesitated before continuing.

"You need to get some gear; I want you where I can see you so you will be staying over at the Hub for the next few days until this blows over."

"Jack,no!"

"Ianto that is not the answer I was hoping."

"Jack, you can't protect us 24/7, whatever this is they haven't……"

"Ianto I can make this an order but I would rather not."

Ianto sighed and stared out of the windscreen,

"You have so much past Jack, how to you stop it from taking you over?"

Jack looked at him thoughtfully then joined his gaze outside of the vehicle.

Taking a deep breath Jack answered.

"Try not to drink alone?"

Jack tried for a joke and both men smirked.

Then Jack grew more serious.

"No, you make better ones to replace the bad, only you need twice as many to cover them up. Keep moving forward and try not to look back too much is my motto."

"What happens when they catch up with you?

"Like I said, try not to drink alone. Come on, let's get this done."

The climbed out of the SUV together, mounting the steps to Ianto's apartment.

Ianto produced his keys and opened the door.

Immediately Jack unclasped the briefcase and took the sweeper equipment out handing one to Ianto. They split up with Jack taking the kitchen lounge and hall and Ianto taking the bedrooms, bath and laundry. It didn't take long and by the time they had finished they had a total of 5 bugs laid out on the table.

Jack glanced at Ianto's face which had grown serious. Without taking his eyes from the collection on the table Ianto muttered…..

"I'm just going to go pack."

And he moved off to the bedroom.

Gathering the offending items Jack placed them in the briefcase.

He would have Tosh look at them back at the Hub though he doubted there was anything to be gleaned from them.

He took up position on Ianto's couch as he waited for Ianto to finish, grateful that he was giving in.

tbc


	10. Chapter 10

Jack had finally sent the team home, Gwen and Owen had come back from Thomas' home empty handed, Ianto had sent his e-mail to the three e-mail addresses he still had for Riley, he didn't expect a reply but Jack thought it was worth a go.

Tosh's search for the hackers had come up with nothing and Jack asked her to look at the bugs first thing in the morning, as much as there was an urgency to get answers Jack had a need tonight to be with Ianto alone.

Jack had not wanted to admit to anyone, lest of all Ianto, that they were running out of leads. He hated to say it but if there was no reply from Riley, all they could do was wait for the next move, Jack hated being the hunted especially when the bait was Ianto.

Calling up the CCTV footage Jack found Ianto in the tourist office, sitting behind the counter engrossed in a tatty looking book.

"Time for a break" Jack muttered under his breath and made his way to the small office.

Pouring over the book Ianto was pleased he had thought to grab it from home when Jack had taken him back to his apartment to check it over. It helped focus his mind and the recall of memories from that time was easier when he was reading it. It made it appear it happened to someone else.

"Good book?"

He had heard the door open and now turned his attention from the pages to Jack standing close by.

"My diary" Ianto said

"Thought it might help to……go back there, remember….."

"Want to talk about it?"

Ianto considered it for a second before shaking his head, deciding he had had enough of old ghosts for one day.

"Good."

Jack moved to Ianto, pulling him to his feet and holding his head just inches from his own.

"I have a better use for these lips than talking."

Leaning in to claim his mouth Jack felt Ianto melt into his kiss and willingly let him in to his warm, wet mouth. He was always amazed that even after all these years alive, a kiss was enough to make him hard, it always helped when he had lips such as these to kiss.

He ground his hips against Ianto's and was more than pleased to find his need matched his own.

Breaking the kiss Jack pressed light kisses along Ianto's jawline to his ear where he whispered,

"Is the door locked?" He motioned to the public entrance to the Tourist office.

Breathing hard Ianto shook his head and made to move to lock the door before Jack kept him still and whispered in his ear,

"No. leave it"

Ianto's breathing hitched as he imagined people walking past, going on with their lives oblivious to the pleasure they found themselves in with only an unlocked door for protection against the general public.

Jack smiled lewdly as he felt his lovers increased desire at the possibility of being caught out. He resumed kissing from his ear to his neck, trailing a wet path before muzzling into the small of his neck as Ianto rolled his head to the side to allow Jack access to his flesh. Working his way back up to Ianto's ears Jack whispered,

"You need to lose the suit, need something else to lick"

Ianto found his voice and replied….

"You want it off, you take it off."

Jack grinned in lust and added one more lick to his ear, he pulled back now to lock eyes with the youngman.

He held eye contact with him as he drew the unbuttoned waistcoat over his shoulder and dropped it to the floor. Next he started popping buttons one by one on Ianto's shirt never taking is eyes from the young man's. Once he reached the last button he tore the shirt out of the trousers it was tucked into and drew it over his shoulders where it joined the waistcoat.

Jack ran his hands over Ianto's chest, pausing over nipples as he lightly brushed them and he felt Ianto shudder, goose bumps ghosting over his skin. Breaking the eye contact Jack leant down to capture his collarbone, licking the inside groove and tracing patterns with his tongue as his hands worked their way down to undo the belt buckle and trousers.

Painstakingly Jack slid the zipper down slowly, lightly brushing the erection beneath as Ianto let out a small moan. The trousers slid to the floor as Ianto shifted from one leg to the other and they too joined his other clothes.

Ianto cupped his hands around Jack's face and dragged it from the delicious sensations of his tongue to bring him up to eye level. Leaning forward Ianto captured Jack's mouth in a bruising kiss, he left his mouth and followed Jack's actions as he now licked a path from the older man's mouth to his ear until he held Jack's earlobe between his teeth. As he did so he pulled Jack's coat from his shoulders, adding it to the pile on the floor.

Drawing back he followed Jack's direction and undressed his Captain. Flicking off braces, pulling at t-shirts until both where naked apart from their boxers.

They faced each other, lust heavy in the air.

Jack drew Ianto in and walked him backwards until his back hit the edge of the counter.

He slipped his hand into the elastic of Ianto's boxes he eased them over his firm buttocks, causing the hard cock to bounce as the elastic snapped over it.

Ianto gasped and pressed himself up into Jack who encouraged him in turn to sit up on the counter.

Jack positioned himself over Ianto, gazing at his lover stretched out over tourist pamphlets.

He leant forward to attack his navel, placing small light kisses there before plunging his tongue in and out, wetting the area completely before trailing a moist path down closer to Ianto's groin. He circled around his inner thigh with his tongue as groans emitted from Ianto loud enough, Jack thought, to arouse the interest of the general public milling around the door.

Jack lifted his head to lock eyes with Ianto to find lust met with lust. Grinning he bent down and took the full length of him in his eager mouth as Ianto yelped and tried to jerk off the counter. Keeping his hands firmly planted on the young man's hips he made sure Ianto couldn't move as Jack worked his wicked mouth up and down on his lover's shaft, hollowing his cheeks to allow for more friction.

Ianto threw his head back and groaned as he felt his need reach breaking point from the sensations Jack was creating. Just the thought of someone barging through the door to the site of him being sucked off by his boss drove his desire to a new peak.

"Close Jack…….so close"

Ianto tilted onto his back baring himself to Jack and whoever was outside behind that door, he didn't care anymore.

Jack took the hint and without breaking his ministrations of his cock he opened the top drawer behind the counter producing the lube he had placed there some months before, he always knew it would come in handy and he was always prepared.

He took time to slick up both of his hands then he moved his mouth and replaced it with one well lubed hand, adding enough pressure to keep things interesting but not enough to push Ianto over the edge.

With his other hand he stroked fingers lightly over Ianto's balls then moved deliberately slowly up to knead his buttocks before rubbing lube in and around the puckering hole.

There was nothing more beautiful than watching Ianto's face when in the throes of passion; the moment as he entered him was burnt in his memory as a precious moment in time.

He watched his face carefully as he slid a slick finger into his entrance, earning a gasp as he watched Ianto throw his head back in ecstasy. He added a second finger and moved slowly in and out, crooking his fingers as he reached the spot that saw the young man squirming, trying to fuck himself on the fingers.

"Enough, Jack! Please, need you, please, inside me now."

Grinning, Jack let go of Ianto's cock and his fingers slid out of him. Adding more lube to his cock Jack wiggled Ianto to the edge of the counter as he aligned himself to his entrance, pausing Jack said,

"Ianto, look at me"

Ianto snapped his eyes open and found Jack's gaze intense as he pushed forward, finally burying himself deep inside his lover. Both men gasped but never let their eyes stray from each other. Jack held his position to allow both of them to adjust to the heat of being seated inside Ianto's hot, tight channel.

"Move Jack, move now"

Smiling back down at his face Jack closed his eyes as he began to move, slowly at first until he was thrusting in and out, an urgency now to make Ianto come and to come inside of him.

"So hot Ianto, so close."

Ianto squeezed muscles around Jack's cock, determined to give Jack as much pleasure through friction as he could. Jack groaned as his thrusting became erratic, the intense massage Ianto was giving was too much. He moved his hand back to Ianto's cock, stroking to give his lover as much pleasure as possible until Ianto grabbed his hand, pulling it away.

"No, wanna come just from you inside me, just that, only that"

Jack felt his control blissfully slipping away as the intense heat built throughout his body, looking for a release point as it worked its way down through his thrusting hips, his pace was now fast and furious as it reached a crescendo and he lost himself inside Ianto literally and figuratively, he thrust violently as he came, lifting Ianto's hips high off the counter to empty himself inside of him.

The feel and look of Jack as he came was too much and Ianto let himself be pushed over the brink, coming with a roar in time with Jack's now languid thrusts he spread himself over their stomachs.

As the final tremors where slowly dissipating Jack collapsed boneless onto him and Ianto wrapped his arms around him, neither being able to move. Peppering Ianto's chest with kisses as the young man reciprocated placing light kisses on Jack's head.

It was a few minutes before either of them moved. Jack disengaged gently from Ianto, standing up and pulling Ianto with him so he they were both standing. He wrapped his arms around the young man and kissed him lightly and gently on his red lips.

"Shower first then Chinese or pizza?"

"Pizza"

Jack leant close to his ear and whispered…..

"Meat feast or supreme, or have you had enough meat feast for one night?"

Ianto chuckled…..

"You can never have enough, think it might be both tonight………Sir"

Ianto ducked out of his arms and ran for the door to the hub.

"Cheeky Bastard"

"Race you to the showers"

Jack laughed as he watched his disappearing lover run back to the hub. This was going to be a good night after all.

tbc


	11. Chapter 11

He rolled over and switched on the light to check the time on his watch. 2.30am. Not too bad then. The last time he looked at his watch it was 11.00, a solid 4 hours sleep wasn't too shabby and it left him ready to face another Torchwood day. He rolled over to face the sleeping form in his bed.

Asleep, Ianto's face was peaceful, devoid of the normal lines that had formed as a result of holding his face in the mask he carried throughout the day.

He loved watching him sleep, to see him so uninhibited was a gift. He pondered on this a while longer than he should have as flashbacks from the night before saw a lewd smile plastered on his face.

For one moment he entertained a thought to wake his lover in the best way possible before thinking better of it, deciding Ianto needed the sleep.

Climbing carefully out of bed so as not to wake him, he had a pile of paperwork from the day before, may as well be productive he thought seeing as he would not go back to sleep.

Jack figured after a few hours of paperwork he would need the attentions of his lover and Jack had a plan to get just what he needed from the sleeping form of this gorgeous creature.

As he pulled his t-shirt over his head something in the air made his hair stand on end.

Something wasn't right, he stilled himself so that he could tune in to the noises of the Hub and immediately picked up what his instinct was already telling him, someone or something was in the Hub and nothing but him, Ianto, Janet and Myfanwy should be the here at this time of night.

The team had gone home before 7pm and were not due back in until 7.30am. Silently he reached the nightstand for his gun and made sure it was loaded, he thought about waking Ianto before deciding against it, he was safer down here from whatever was up in the Hub.

He paused at the bottom of the ladder that led out of his room and listened, trying to gauge the location of the intrusion.

It sounded to Jack that whoever or whatever was in the Hub was on the main floor. Satisfied he was not going to walk into an ambush he silently pulled himself up and into his office and as gently and quietly as possible he closed the hatch and secured it from the outside effectively locking the young man in.

Keeping low to the ground he crept over to the glass windows. From his office he had a pretty good view of the floor and could see just about everything from this vantage point.

As he looked for the source of the noise his attention was drawn to Toshiko's terminal. There, bathed in the glow from her screen he could make out two people and judging posture and size they were not part of his team and barely out of short pants.

Carefully and silently he let himself out of his office and started to descend the stairs all the while his eyes never left the intruders.

He trained his weapon over them as he tried to listen to what they were doing in his Hub.

As he got closer he focussed on the voices gleaning information on what they were doing.

"This is it, this is the one he wants."

"OK just give me a second…it's downloading."

"Hurry…this place gives me the creeps. Like it's watching me or something…"

"Nearly done, sure that's all he wants? I mean there has gotta be a ton of cool stuff here just begging to me lifted…that alarm scramble thing and lock pic make this the easiest place I have ever robbed."

"No he was specific, and trust me, you really do NOT want to antagonise him. Is it done? I wanna get out of here"

"Nearly….few more seconds……..done"

"Ok let's go"

Both men span around directly into the barrel of the gun that Jack held aiming it straight for the taller man's head.

"Hey there, well it must be my lucky night, not often I get visitors this late."

The two men uttered no reply.

"Oh but where are my manners, can I offer you some tea? Coffee? Has to be instant it must be said, Ianto hates it when I mess with the coffee machine."

The taller man just grinned at Jack making him feel decidedly uncomfortable.

Jack decided he had had just about enough of this and took charge of the situation.

With gritted teeth he said in a menacing voice

"Ok, here's how this is gonna work, you two are going to hand over whatever the hell you have managed to get from that computer and I will try not to shoot both of you, then you will allow me to extend my hospitality to put you up for a night or three down in our comfy guest rooms and by guest rooms I mean cells. If you are really lucky you will manage to walk out of this place in a few weeks time with memories of your mother. Now gentlemen….are we clear?"

Jack fixed his most menacing stare on the two men. To Jack's amazement neither of them flinched, the taller man continued to grin at Jack.

OK now he was just plain pissed off.

"I WILL shoot you if you do not do what I ask of you so let's try this one more time. Give me the damn…."

Jack stopped when the taller man started laughing at him….training his gun straight at the taller man's head he said….

"Ok, a demonstration gentlemen?"

Jack aimed his gun at just over the heads of the intruders and fired two rounds while the two men held their ground.

Jack barely had time to register his confusion before he felt the hot familiar burning as the bullets entered his own brain and his world once again went black.

tbc


	12. Chapter 12

Jack's gasped as he ripped back to life yet again. Like every time….it hurt…..GOD how it hurt.

Confused he scrambled around himself taking in his surroundings.

He was surprised to find himself still in the Hub and relieved also to see he wasn't shackled down to anything. He slowly got to his feet and took a moment to get his bearings, what the hell just happened?

Coming back to his senses he heard a yell coming from his office and it took a few moments before his brain registered it was Ianto.

Obviously he had heard the shots and found he couldn't get out.

"I'm coming, it's ok" Jack yelled.

Thankfully Ianto was still safe and secure.

He stood and took a quick moment to gather himself, shaking his head to clear the fuzziness that threatened to overtake him. He stumbled up the stairs back to his office and opened the hatch, pulling Ianto up with one hand.

"What the hell is going on Jack?"

"Someone was in the Hub."

Jack moved out of his office and back down stairs down to the terminal where the two men had stood, Ianto followed.

"I heard shots and then laughing Jack, I couldn't get out of the bunker."

"They shot me, or something shot me….I don't really know I think I shot myself."

"Huh? Jack you're not making any sense."

Jack was pulling up the CCTV footage and replayed it so Ianto could see as Jack fired his gun and the bullets seemed to hit an invisible wall only to rebound back into Jack as the older man crumpled.

After that the men grabbed the memory stick and ran back out of the hub through to the Tourist office.

"You took them on by yourself?"

"Yeah well I thought I had it covered."

"You trapped me in your bunk?"

"Ianto I was just trying to…"

"FUCK JACK!!" Ianto was yelling.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU PLAYING AT?"

"I was trying to PROTECT you Ianto, I could handle it and…"

"AND WHAT? Jack you left me down there, blocked me off, I had no weapon, no way to defend myself, what would have happened if after they killed you they came looking for me?"

Jack paled, he hadn't thought about that.

"Ianto, I was just trying to protect you, I'm sorry I hadn't thought…"

"And what makes you think you had to handle it on your own?"

"Ianto it doesn't matter, I can take care of it, I can come back…"

"Jack, what makes you think you have to, and what makes you think your life doesn't matter, your the one who is always going on about precious life yet you are more than eager to throw yours away."

Ianto had calmed down, encouraged by the sheepish look on Jack's face.

Quietly Jack said,

"I will not apologise for protecting you, for protecting all of you."

"And I will not apologise for being angry every time you throw your life away."

Jack looked up and a small smile played over his lips.

Ianto shook his head, fighting at the smile that threatened to grace his lips.

Jack turned back to the terminal.

"They were after something and I can only guess it's linked to mysterious hackers from last night."

Ianto moved to Tosh's second terminal to help Jack locate what information they had received.

"Looks like they downloaded some files."

"Can you pinpoint what ones?" Jack asked

Jack was busy with the CCTV, trying to trace the two figures as they ran laughing from the Hub.

He followed them as they ran from the Tourist office entrance and he could see them as they got outside and then….they had disappeared.

"Damn!"

Jack rolled back the footage, traced them with his finger as they breached the door to outside. He switched over to the outside cameras. He saw them stepping over the threshold and once they were both outside they disappeared.

"Looks like they accessed the Archive database."

Ianto pressed a few more keys.

"What did they get?"

Ianto turned to face Jack,

"Jack, they got everything, all of the computerized archive files."

"What the hell do they want that for?"

"There doesn't appear to be any one thing they are after, they took all of it."

"Nice way to keep what you're really after hidden I guess."

"There was something else they got."

Ianto stared directly at Jack and the older man was not sure he wanted to know.

"Personnel files……..my personnel file to be exact."

Jack picked up the nearest thing he could reach on the desk and flung it against the wall. The coffee cup smashed against it as Ianto flinched at the sudden outburst.

"DAMMIT!! What the hell do they want?!!!"

Jack's voice echoed around the empty hub causing Myfanwy to shriek. He paced, running his hands through his hair.

So many questions were running around his head, questions he needed answers to now.

"You want me to call the others in?"

Jack stopped pacing and looked at Ianto, he started to walk towards him but stopped when Ianto backed away and started busying himself with the terminal. He regarded the younger man very carefully.

"Ianto?"

"I can call them in now or we can wait till morning."

Jack was now standing by his side.

"Ianto?" Jack called softly.

"I can see if there is anything else here they targeted. Looks like they had a basic thumb drive, looking at….."

Jack covered his hands over Ianto's, stilling his work over the keyboard. Ianto had stopped talking but did not look up from the screen.

"Look at me…"

Jack pulled him around so he was facing him.

"Ianto, are you..."

"Don't Jack, don't ask me that…..just don't. I have to…..the only thing I can do is try and find out what is going on, just let me do that. I can't think about anything else, it's too much so just don't, don't ask me if I am ok."

Jack released his hands and nodded.

"Ok, I'll call Gwen and Owen you call Tosh, tell her I'll get Owen to pick her up."

Jack placed a comforting hand on his back as he left to retrieve his phone from his bunker as Ianto retrieved his phone from the Tourist office.

tbc


	13. Chapter 13

Owen groaned as the ringing phone pulled him out of his precious sleep.

Rolling over he looked at the alarm clock, the angry red numbers blinked through his sleep riddled eyes.

4.00am.

"Jack, give me a bloody break" he muttered, knowing only his boss would call at such an obscene hour. He flung his arm out to gather the phone and answer his bosses call.

"Hurghhhh?"

"Owen, good morning to you too, nice to hear you are as coherent as ever."

"Fuck off Jack it's late, or early, or something like that."

"Sorry sleeping beauty but I need you to come in asap. Someone just broke into the Hub."

Jack had Owen's full attention now.

"Ohhhh Tosh will be pissed. How did THAT happen?"

"That's why I need you in here for"

"Why, were you or teaboy hurt?"

"No Owen but I need ALL of you here."

Sighing Owen pushed back the duvet and swung his legs over the side.

"OK, on my way but Teaboy better have some really good coffee on the go when I get there."

"Oh and Owen? Pick up Toshiko on your way in."

"Yeah, yeah see you in 20."

Owen rubbed his eyes in a vain attempt to push back the sleep he sorely needed. Working for Torchwood, and before that, training as a doctor he was used to interrupted sleep.

He used to pride himself on having more stamina, more go in him that any of his fellow trainees. He thrived on the grueling double shifts, catching 20 minutes here and an hour there, Torchwood was perfect for that.

Right…..shower, shave and then over to Tosh's. He would worry about breakfast on the way, might even treat Tosh to breakfast too.

He felt his stomach squirm as he thought about his colleague. A squirming that made him uneasy and took him by surprise.

Tosh, brainy classy Tosh.

So very clever it made his brain ache.

Not normally the type he went for these days. He usually liked them vacuous, less complications, he was the first to admit he was a shag and leave 'em kinda guy.

He wasn't always like that though; he had the capacity for great love, but that was gone, she was gone and he tried to bury her deep in his mind.

Even with his minimal training in psychology he knew enough about the workings of the human brain to recognize his behavior as avoidance and repression. Never get close again and then you would never be hurt.

Take what comfort where you can get it and then leave before it gets complicated. For Owen that was generally before the dawn broke or soon after.

He never wanted to hurt Tosh like that.

Not to mention that Jack would tear him a new one if he messed with her or the team.

No……..better to ignore that growing tiger whenever she gave him that look. He wasn't oblivious to her attentions so he pushed her away.

"Ok Harper," he said to himself. "Time to move."

He dragged himself off the bed and into his shower to make himself feel human to face the day.

********************

Rhys groaned as he heard Gwen's phone ringing from her bedside table. Opening one eye he rolled over to face Gwen.

She was still asleep in peaceful oblivion.

"Gwen?" Rhys had reached over to gently shake her.

Gwen let out a huge snort and rolled closer to him, throwing her arm over his torso.

"Gwen?" This time he shook a little harder.

Sighing Rhys reached over her and grabbed the mobile from the bedside table. The caller display flashed up Jack's name.

Sighing he pushed the button to accept the call and immediately the flashy American's voice sounded down the line.

"Gwen Cooper, please tell me I have interrupted something saucy that made you take so long to pick up the call."

"It's Rhys and the only thing you have interrupted is a decent night's sleep."

"Oh, sorry Rhys."

"No you're not Jack"

Rhys was now shaking Gwen as she snorted loudly again.

"Ah……the dulcet tones of Gwen sleeping huh?"

Rhys could hear the tone of amusement in Jack's voice,

"More like the dulcet tones of someone getting woken at an ungodly hour."

"Sorry Rhys, really I am but I wouldn't do this if it wasn't important."

"Yeah and it's always important I suppose. Here she is."

He handed the phone to Gwen who was struggling for consciousness as he climbed out of bed to place the kettle on.

He knew enough now to know how this went. She got the call, got ready and was out the door, walking into god knew what, risking everything and nothing.

He was so proud of her, for what she did, for the way she did it but he was terrified he was going to lose her either to some alien monster or while saving the world or both.

He thought back to the phone call and the flashy Captain Jack.

There was a time he was jealous of the hold this man held over his wife. There was a time he had to question his Gwen's fidelity to him.

He wasn't stupid, he had seen Gwen slipping away from him since she had joined Torchwood, he could only imagine how difficult those months where for her, how isolating it must have felt.

He could understand if she had taken comfort in the arms of someone who understood what she was feeling, experiencing.

Understood yes….forgiveness….maybe not and honestly, he really didn't want to know. He was only grateful that she could now share that part of her with him. If she hadn't he had no doubt he would not be standing in the kitchen of their flat, making her tea so she could go and save the world.

As he turned to fill the teapot he felt two arms circle round his waist as kisses where placed on his back.

"World in peril?"

He felt her shake her head.

"Not exactly, well not yet anyway. Someone broke into the Hub."

"And that warrants an emergency?"

"Dunno, Jack's on edge at the moment, seems someone is targeting Ianto and Jack is particularly over protective when it comes to him. "

She pressed a kiss into the back of his neck before moving off.

"I'll just jump in the shower, …….Oh and Rhys? Jack said to apologise for the early morning call."

"Gee…thanks" Rhys muttered and watched as his champion wandered off to wake herself up.


	14. Chapter 14

It was only an hour later and the team was once again gathered in the conference room.

"So Jack what you are saying is they had some sort of force-shield around them, deflected the bullets?"

"Well what does it look like to you Owen" Jack said sarcastically.

It was the fourth time Owen had asked him that question since they had gathered and he was really starting to grate at Jack's already frayed nerves.

Turning his attention to Tosh he asked…

"So Tosh, what did they get?"

"Well Ianto's initial assessment was correct, they seemed to have downloaded the entire archive collection that we have on computer file and they also now have a copy of Ianto's personnel file among some schematics of the Hub and everything we had on Torchwood one."

"So I think it is very safe to assume that David Thomas is very much behind this."

"Seems that way."

Gwen what have you got on CCTV?"

"I'm still going over the data Jack but it looks like they entered through the through the Tourist entrance."

Jack and Ianto looked guiltily at each other, a flush of red creeping up the face of the young man.

Regardless of whether they had locked the office or not, the fact remained they knew exactly how to get into the Hub, that suggested inside knowledge.

He rift alarm sounded at that moment making them all jump, the last few days was setting them all on edge.

Instantly they spilled from the conference room as Toshiko set to work on her PC.

"It's the rift predictor Jack, Weevils, and there is a heap of them downtown, am sending the co-ordinates to your wrist strap."

"Ok, you three with me, Tosh you stay here, be our eyes and ears if need be, in the meantime, I want a sweep of those bugs we found last night, when we get back we'll all get into the CCTV footage from last night."

********************

The SUV packed and ready to go they rode in relative silence to the co-ordinates Tosh had sent through. It was to an old abandoned warehouse in an industrial part of town.

"Jack?"

The com crackled.

"What we looking at here Tosh?"

"Looks like a nest Jack, I'm getting at least 15 if not more all grouped in the warehouse itself."

"Thanks Tosh."

They neared the location and jumped out of the SUV. Ianto moved to the back and opened the back handing out weevil spray and stun guns.

"Ok, Ianto you're with me, we go around the back and you two take the front. Once inside we engage. We're going to try and keep as much of an element of surprise as possible ok?"

The others nodded.

"Let's do it and stick together, if they scatter it will make it much harder to keep control."

Ianto handed him the modified flame thrower, they hadn't trialed it before and it had enough weevil spray to knock out large groups at a time, looks like it would be trialed tonight

Running off with Ianto in tow they quickly made their way to the back entrance. Pausing briefly Jack tapped his com.

"Ok we are in position, on my mark we all go in, silently. One, Two Three..."

Jack slowly turned the handle as Ianto took point and cleared the immediate entrance.

Moving silently inside Ianto held his gun just slightly over his torch, taking in the empty space.

The small rivers of light from the collective torches illuminated the dingy warehouse mixed with the streams of sunlight filtering in from the holes that had been punched through the iron walls and roof.

He felt a tap on his shoulder as Jack directed him to go left as he went right.

Moving around as silently as he could, he could now make out the rising mass of weevils in the middle of the warehouse.

Something about this was off.

Maybe it was a result of his frayed nerves over the last 2 days but he doubted it. He had learned to trust his instincts and this was just too convenient. A group of weevils all in this warehouse sleeping, not bothering anyone so where had the alert come from; if the rift had washed them up normally they would be aggressive, not sleeping as they appeared to be now.

********************

Jack could make out the forms of Gwen and Owen as they approached from the other side. Something about this didn't sit right. He had no time to think on that now as they all got into place. Time to give the order.

"Ok, everyone ready….on three. One, Two Three."

Jack fired the flamethrower as it issued out the sleeping gas to subdue the heap.

The noise alone was enough to waken the mob and they were now most definitely not happy to be woken. There was a roar as Gwen, Owen and Ianto braced themselves as the weevils started to move towards them.

The majority of them where slowed by the gas Jack was still unleashing on them.

Gwen took off for two that were headed in her direction as Owen braced himself and started firing.

Ianto tracked 2 also moving towards him and took care of the first one as it approached, knocking it out with a dose of weevil spray.

Sidestepping the fallen weevil he turned to late to find the second almost on top of him as it took a swipe at him. He canted backwards as he felt the claws graze his skin, gasping at the stinging sensation. He recovered in just enough time to deliver a healthy dose of spray right in the weevils face. Scrambling to his feet he touched his chest and his hand came back bloody, he knew that it was no worse than a graze and there was no time beyond that to explore the extent of the injury as the third weevil descended.

Out of the corner of his eye he felt more than saw Jack fighting off a mob of his own weevils. He ran backwards and pulled a canister of spray, setting it off before throwing it like a grenade in Jack's direction. It had the desired effect and dispersed the mob surrounding him. Jack grinned at him gratefully though the smile did not last long.

"Ianto, LOOK OUT!"

Ianto turned in time to see the weevil descend on him. Instinct took over as he ran from the offending claw further back into the shadows of the warehouse in order to give himself time to pull out the stun gun. He hit the weevil with it, activating the trigger. The beast gave a few shuddering jolts and slumped to the ground. Ianto turned, breathing heavy as he walked back to the others.

The last thing he remembered from that day was answering Jack's voice over the coms to confirm he was ok, that and a grinning man as a white light exploded in his head and everything went black.

tbc


	15. Chapter 15

Jack had dragged the last of the weevils he had been dealing with back to the pile. There must have been at least 20 of them and it looked as though they would need some help on this one.

"Tosh?"

"Here Jack."

"Call UNIT, we have about 20 weevils needed for urgent disposal. Tell 'em to bring a truck"

"I'm on it Jack…there is something else you might want to check out while you are there."

"Oh?"

Jack's curiosity getting the better of him.

"There was a massive energy spike in the west part of the warehouse just a few moments ago. Sending coordinates to your wrist strap now"

A beep sounded as Jack tracked the coordinates. Cautiously he moved off to the shadows registering that this was the way he had seen Ianto running just a few minutes before. A fear washed over him as a thought occurred to Jack.

"Tosh? Get me a fix on Ianto's position."

"On it Jack….he should be to your left, about 20 metres."

Jack tapped his coms again.

"Ianto, come in are…….."

Jack froze as he heard his own voice distorted through the com link. Taking a deep breath and drawing his Webley he moved to the position pinpointed by Tosh as in the darkness of the corner he could see a light fading.

It was Ianto's torch, laying close by was a can of weevil spray and next to that was Ianto's com.

"Dammit!! Tosh, come in."

"What is it Jack."

"Tosh, he's not here do a search for the subcutaneous tracker."

"All ready on it Jack, just give me a minute……..what the hell….."

"Tosh what is it?"

Jack had an air of urgency about him now.

"Jack, the tracker, it looks like it has been blocked I can't get a lock on him"

Jack swore, a burning now rising in his gut, he should have kept him safer than this, now it seemed they had plucked Ianto right out from underneath his nose, he felt bile rise in his throat.

What the hell had this been? A set up?

It had felt wrong from the minute they stepped inside the warehouse and Jack's instincts had been screaming at him then, he should have backed out. But as usual his arrogance had figured he could handle anything. Things are ok when you're with the Captain right? Dammit! How often had that got his friends in trouble or worse?

He was only vaguely aware of someone calling his name pulling him back to the problem at hand.

"Jack?"

It was Gwen and she was at his side. The open coms conversation he had with Tosh meant that both Gwen and Owen now knew what had happened.

"They have him, Gwen…they have Ianto and I let them take him."

Gwen laid a hand on his arm, anchoring him to the present.

Knowing what Jack needed Gwen took over.

"Ok Tosh, I need you to do a complete sweep of the warehouse and beyond. Pull CCTV footage on anywhere close by. You said there was an energy spike?"

"Yes I'm running the diagnostic on it now, preliminary reports have it along the similar lines as our two disappearing thieves from last night, I'll know more about that and be able to give more definite answers on that once I have had a chance to analyse the data."

"Ok, stay on it Tosh, we will be in soon. Owen?"

"Yep?"

"Stay with the weevils, the UNIT transport will be here soon."

"Ok……Gwen is he….."

"We don't know yet Owen, we get these weevils out of the way and we will find him."

"That's what I love about you Welsh and why I never want to piss any of you off. You're nothing if not tenacious."

"You ain't seen nothing yet Owen."

Smiling grimly at the comment Gwen turned to Jack…..

"We will find him Jack."

"We better, and god help all of them when we do."

Gwen shivered slightly upon hearing the tone of Jack's voice.

She knew if it was Rhys she wouldn't stop until she had killed anyone and everyone that had hurt him. It scared her at times, the length she would be prepared to go and now she saw that same thing reflected in Jack's eyes. It was terrible and beautiful at the same time and Gwen hoped she wouldn't have to bear witness to the wrath of Jack.

"Come on, we gotta get back to the Hub, Owen will stay here and coordinate with UNIT."

Gwen baulked when Jack did not make any motion to move.

"Jack there is nothing more we can do here, Owen will bag up evidence once UNIT have gone andTosh has everything else we need and she needs our help back at the Hub."

Still Jack did not move.

"It's my fault Gwen"

"Jack…" Gwen warned

"It's my fault Gwen, I should have left him at the Hub, I should have protected…"

"Jack this isn't helping in finding him."

Jack was growing more panicked.

"Gwen they have him, god knows what for, I should have protected him better, I should have….."

"Jack stop it! This isn't helping."

Jack wasn't listening. Now he was really scaring Gwen, she knew there would be no hope in finding Ianto if they all weren't focused.

She watched as Jack moved into the shadows of the warehouse, following an imaginary trail.

"There must be a fake wall somewhere"

He was feeling along the wall when he suddenly realized Gwen wasn't helping him. He walked towards her, his voice pleading.

"Gwen you have to help me find him."

"We will pet, but not like this."

"Please Gwen."

He moved his face inches from her own, all of a sudden Gwen felt very vulnerable.

"HELP ME GWEN!"

**SMACK! ****  
**

Jack recoiled as Gwen delivered an open palm slap that shocked him back to the present.

"STOP IT JACK!!!"

"IT"S MY FAULT!" Jack screamed back.

"AND HOW IS THIS HELPING?"

Jack seemed stunned……

"What?"

"Get it together Harkness. The last thing Ianto needs, hell that all of us need is for you to fall apart." Gwen's tone softened hoping to get through to the Captain she carried on.

"It wouldn't have mattered how careful you had been, if they wanted him, they would have got him, now that they have, it is up to us to get him back. No one messes with us and gets away with it Jack. They will feel the wrath of Torchwood."

Jack did a double take on her and cocked his eyebrow….

"The wrath of Torchwood, is that what we are calling it nowadays?"

Gwen gave a snort….

"Yeah well I'm not that good on the team rousing motivational speeches."

"No…you did pretty well" Jack retorted now rubbing his cheek.

"We gotta get him back Gwen and god help anyone who gets in the way."

"I know Jack, and we will."

She gave his arm a squeeze as he spoke to Tosh.

"We're coming in Tosh."

And she followed him to the car.

tbc


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks to all for your comments and for reading. I don't reply to them as well as I**

**should but it is very much appreciated. ******

The trip back to the Hub was silent, Jack wouldn't let Gwen drive and she wasn't sure if it was a good sign he no longer seemed to be shutting down or a bad one that they could die in some horrific motor accident every time Jack disobeyed the give way rule.

Jack barely waited for the SUV to stop in the garage before he was out of it, his coat flapping behind him as he swept a dramatic path to the Hub.

They had left Owen behind to coordinate UNIT and the weevils, he assured Gwen he would make it back to the Hub under his own steam.

Jack was barely in the Hub before he started his questioning of Tosh.

"Tell me you have something Tosh?"

Tosh took a deep breath in before turning around to face Jack.

"I've done a preliminary scan of the energy spike and it definitely seems to mirror the one we had last night just before the two intruders got away. The CCTV footage is downloading now, there is the outside perimeter of the warehouse and some of the street; I'll need someone to go through it."

Gwen nodded.

"Count me in."

I'm going to try and see if I can follow the energy signature but it could take a while."

Jack nodded.

"I've got some leads I need to follow up myself. Ianto brought his diary in from around the time he knew David. He'll probably hate me for it but I'm gonna go do some light reading. I wanna know the minute anything comes up."

Gwen and Tosh nodded and exchanged a look as they watched Jack retreat to the Tourist office.

"He's not ok is he?"

Gwen sighed.

"No."

The two women reached out a hand to each other, squeezing for comfort.

"I'll route the footage to your PC."

Gwen nodded and both women set to work.

Twtwtwtwtwtwtwtw

Jack silently made his way to the tourist office. As he stepped through the secret door he paused to take in the room.

It reminded him of Ianto, smelt of Ianto, felt like Ianto.

He ran his fingers over the stacks of pamphlets that were meticulously lined up on the counter.

He sat himself down behind the counter and opened the drawer.

It was filled with Ianto.

The drawer had a strong smell of coffee as Jack noticed the stray coffee beans in the draw. He reached in and rummaged around until his fingers closed on a brass coloured stop watch. He fought back tears as he ran his fingers over the smooth surface. Slipping it into his pocket he took another glance into the drawer.

There, lying on top was the tatty leather bound book Ianto had been reading the night before.

Was that really only the night before?

To Jack it seemed like a lifetime ago, and that was saying something. So much had happened since he had taken Ianto on the desktop with only an unlocked door between them and the world.

Frowning he looked again at the pamphlets lined up upon the counter, unless he was mistaken they had come off rather second best against the frantic coupling of the night before.

There was only one way they got back to the semblance of order they were now in.

Somehow during all that had happened Ianto had retreated to put this part of his world back in order.

A huge smile grew on Jack's face which in turn grew into laughter. He threw his head back, and a new feeling replaced the coldness he had felt since the warehouse.

He knew….at that moment he knew.

He would get his Welshman back, even if he had to kill everyone doing it.

He grabbed the book before stroking his fingers lovingly over the stacks of brochures and made for his office. He had some serious reading to do.

Twtwtwtwtwt

Owen watched as the UNIT truck turned out of the warehouse parking lot. He didn't move until he was satisfied they were gone.

Sighing he made his way back to the warehouse. It had been torture waiting idly while the UNIT soldiers loaded the weevils up. He just wanted to do something useful to track down Ianto.

He entered the warehouse and decided to do a sweep of the space itself. Painstakingly Owen went over every inch of the warehouse floor, pausing only to bag up the items Ianto had dropped. Leaning down for the broken coms, Owen kicked the torch and it rolled away a good 5 metres from him.

He noticed the coms had blood on it as he picked it up. Where it was lying there was also droplets of blood on the ground nearby, he would need to get a sample to be sure but he would have placed money on it belonging to Ianto.

Running back to the entrance door he rummaged through the bag he had asked Gwen to leave behind out of the SUV. He stopped when he found a sample kit and made his way back over to the spot to get samples of the blood.

Once he had finished with the samples he walked over to get the torch. He paused for just a brief moment as something caught his eye, glinting in the light.

He bent down trying to get closer to what looked like a small box unlike Owen had ever seen. He took a plastic bag out of his pocket and wrapped it around his hand taking care to pick up the box without touching it. Upon closer inspection it looked definitely alien and it most certainly wasn't one of theirs.

Owen jumped slightly as his coms crackled to life.

"Owen?"

"Tosh ?"

"Are you finished out there?"

"Just finishing up now, might have an interesting toy for you to look at."

"Great, we'll take any leads we can get right now. Gwen's on her way with the SUV to pick you up."

"Thanks Tosh, see you soon."

He cut the transmission and packed up his kit.

He hoped whatever he had found was a lead. No-one messed with the team, rule number one. Times like that….Torchwood took no prisoners.

And besides, Owen thought, where was he going to get good coffee?

tbc


	17. Chapter 17

Ianto stirred, a dull ache in his head soon told him he really didn't want to be conscious.

What the hell had happened? He tried to piece together the last things he remembered but it was coming back to him in flashes. The warehouse, the weevils, there was so many weevils and all in the one spot. It was flashing in and out of his brain, Jack telling him to watch out, drawing the weevil out. Talking to Jack on the coms and the man…….oh god the man.

Ianto's eyes snapped open and he immediately regretted it.

A pain radiated from his eyeball ripping a path back down along his head towards the back of his neck. He closed his eyes and it took a few minutes for the pain to recede; tentatively he opened his eyes slowly, allowing them to adjust to the light this time. It took a while before he was able to open them up enough to make some order from his surroundings.

It was a small windowless room, more like a cell…..no strike that, exactly like a cell. He was lying on steel bench, the cold of the steel leaching through his clothes making him shiver involuntarily.

Gingerly he pushed himself up, ignoring the now throbbing pain in his head as a new pain tore across his chest. Now in the sitting position he carefully unbuttoned his vest and shirt to inspect the gash left by the weevil. It had bled but was dried now and it didn't look too deep. Ianto decided he would live…..for now anyway so he left it alone and re-buttoned shirt.

He stood carefully, feeling slightly nauseous as the room tilted on its axis. He took a few moments to steady himself and once it had passed he started to explore the room. Pretty standard, no window, no way to figure out what part of town he was in, if in fact he was still in Cardiff.

The door was heavy; it seemed to be reinforced with no lock he could find on his side. Feeling around the crack of the door for any purchase he could get he was disappointed to find it seemed sealed pretty tight.

He sighed, it was a long shot but worth a try.

Sitting back down on the bench he carefully ran his hand through his hair as he thought of what to do next.

"Welcome Mr Jones, so nice to see you up and about."

He jumped as a voice was pumped through speakers.

Ianto growled as what he had already known became reality.

"Well Mr Jones, it has been a while.."

"Not long enough" Ianto cut in.

"Ahh come now that is no way to greet an old friend."

Ianto laughed…..

"Old friend? You really are delusional Thomas"

"Ahh Ianto, it was always Sir"

"Sorry, you're delusional SIR"

"No respect these days Mr Jones. Fundamentally that is what's wrong with the world"

"Whatever you are you doing Thomas, you cannot hope to get away with it. Jack will never negotiate with the likes of you so you can't use me to get……"

Ianto stopped as Thomas laughed; it echoed off the walls of Ianto's cell and sent a chill through him.

When he recovered he said,

"Oh Mr Jones not everything is about your precious Captain haven't you gathered that by now"

Ianto felt like the fly caught in the spider's web.

"It's you I want Mr Jones and no Captain will be able to track you here, no-one will."

"What the hell do you want?"

"I thought that was obvious, I want you Mr Jones. You have something I want, something I need."

"What the hell are you talking about."

"Yes I expected that and that is something we can work on together…..BRING HIM"

Suddenly the door to Ianto's 'cell' opened and two men walked inside taking up position one on either side of him as they roughly grabbed him and marched him out of the room and down a hall to another larger room where the smiling figure of David Thomas stood in the middle.

He looked just like Ianto remembered, just like the last time he saw him that day.

He shuddered at the memory; it was part of a photo slide show that he did not want to remember especially not now.

Ianto swallowed hard making, no forcing himself to calm down, not wanting to show an ounce of weakness in front of this man.

"Take a seat Mr Jones"

Thomas pointed to the chair.

"I'd rather stand its all the same thanks"

Laughing Thomas made a motion to one of the two guards and he produced a stun gun. Before Ianto could react he pressed the gun into his side as he gave the Welshman a sharp jolt, not enough to render him unconscious but enough to bring him to his knees. He gasped with the pain as he momentarily lost control of his body.

He was roaring inside as the battle for his emotions raged. He felt the rough hands of the guard drag him up into the chair as they bound him to it with leather straps, his fight against them was futile, he knew that, but he did not want to give in without a fight.

He kicked out as they bound his legs to the chair, a wave of panic hit him as he realized he was helpless. Hitting out he connected his foot with something solid as a cry emitted the air and in an instant a hand cracked over his head, sending his neck snapping back violently.

"Now, really is that any way to treat our guest?"

Thomas was still smiling at the guards but there was no humor in it. They finished their task and they took up sentry by the door.

"Now Mr Jones, where shall we start?"

"Well you could start with losing the cheap suit, less product on the hair and a change in the cheap cologne."

Ianto sounded braver that he felt.

Thomas' smile slipped from his face as he picked up a wooden stick and cracked it across his chest.

A blinding pain ripped through Ianto as he screamed.

"Now Ianto, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. You can make this less painful on yourself if you can tell me what I need to know."

"What? I don't know what you are talking about"

"Come now Mr Jones,I had hoped this would be a simple process so I will give you a few moments to think about your answer."

Ianto felt a new fear settle in his stomach, he had no idea what Thomas was talking about but he doubted that mattered to this man, he wasn't going to stop until he had what he thought he needed from him.

tbc


	18. Chapter 18

The Hub was quiet.

Gwen had gone to pick up Owen from the warehouse and it was only he and Tosh left until they returned.

It was so quiet.

There was no grinding of the coffee beans or steaming of milk to be heard. It's funny, Jack always assumed Ianto was a quiet influence around this place but now he missed his noise, his presence and yes, his coffee, among other things.

The tattered covered book he had taken from the tourist office sat accusingly on his desk where he had been staring at it for the best part of an hour.

Now that he had the diary up on his desk he hadn't opened it.

He had just stared.

It felt like a violation. Knowing how quiet and reserved Ianto was Jack knew he would have not wanted the diary to see the light of day.

He picked it up; bringing it to his nose he sniffed the cover. It smelt like old leather and, Jack was amused to note, a faint tang of roasted coffee beans.

Growling he opened the cover, trying to ignore the pang he felt when Ianto's neat script stared out from the pages.

It may not help at all, it may be the answer to everything, and maybe on some subconscious level it was just Jack's need to be closer to Ianto.

But Jack had a hunch, ever since Riley Jenkins had shown up on their radar he had been fascinated by her.

Jack had a feeling she was the missing link in all of this, she was his way back to Ianto and he had to try anything he could to get in touch with her and the one thing that Jack was good at was tracking people down that didn't want to be found.

But tracking her down was one thing, convincing her to help him was another and both of those things where the reason he was holed up in his office with Ianto's coffee tinged diary in his hands.

_**March 14 **_

_Was late to work today, slept in. Lisa turned the alarm off when she got in last night._

_I hate it when I am late like that, it's as if the whole day is on the back foot and I can't seem to focus my brain in any one direction. _

_Anyway, Riley has me running diagnostics on the alien tech that was recovered from last week's field mission. Seems to be emitting some kind of low level energy signal. Not sure what that even means yet but I am still collating the data so I might be able to show it to Riley. The writing on it is vaguely familiar but I can't place it. Might check it against the database._

_Yvonne was down here again today, there's something about that woman that I just don't trust. Riley seems to have her worked out though, she only pokes her nose in down here when we may have a possible weapon to assimilate._

_Meeting Lisa later for drinks and then dinner and a movie. Hope she is feeling better, haven't seen her all day, she went home with a migraine so hope she is ok._

_**March 18**_

_Good night last night._

_Lisa and I went to dinner at the new Thai around the corner. She seemed to be a bit distracted tonight, not sure what that was about, maybe still not well? Anyway she seemed to come around when we met Mick and Terry at the movies. She seemed to enjoy the movie. Can't say it was my cup of tea, some mindless Hollywood crap on boy meets girl._

_Riley was waiting for me this morning, she has some new intel on Yvonne and David. Looks like they have been selling off weapons on the black market. Alien tech keeps showing up everywhere all of a sudden._

_She got me to plant a camera in Yvonne's office, Riley and Connor both think something big is coming, I don't know but I don't like the feeling I get when Yvonne or David come down to the lab, suddenly I feel like the fly in the spiders web._

_**April 15**__**th**_

_Riley's 30th birthday today. In the two years I have known her she has never made a fuss of her birthday. When we first met I told her she had the same birthday as my sister. Ever since then she calls me her little brother._

_I like it. _

_Makes me feel part of someone, of something. _

_I miss my family sometimes; I haven't spoken to Rhiannon for so long but it is so hard to describe to anyone what I do here at Torchwood. Notwithstanding the stuff I can't disclose, it's hard to have a normal conversation with someone without feeling that it is terribly mundane. Things like how many pints I had on the weekend and how nice the barmaids tits where are just not on my radar for conversation. It's hard to talk normal when you have spent the day researching a piece of equipment that can rearrange living tissue into concrete._

_When Riley calls me her little brother it makes me feel a little more complete, and there is nothing I wouldn't do for her or Connor._

_Anyway I brought her a locket she had her eye on, had it inscribed from her 'little brother' she and Connor are off on the weekend to Cardiff to see his family so Lisa and I decided to throw her a party tonight, just us and a few friends._

_Hope she likes it._

Jack closed the book as he hit the Coms.

"Tosh?"

"Yes Jack?"

"Any movements on Ianto's e-mails?"

"Hang on, I'll just refresh……..no nothing Jack, sorry."

"Tosh? do me a favour?"

"Sure."

"Find out which cemetery Connor Cartwright is interred"

"Sure Jack, what has this got to do with finding Ianto?"

"Just a hunch Tosh. Let me know when you get a hit."

"Sure Jack, just give me 5 mins"

"That's my Tosh"

It only took her 2 and Jack borrowed her car to pay a visit to a cemetery hoping not for the first time that day he would get lucky.

tbc


	19. Chapter 19

**Agrhhhh!! I'm Back!**

**So sorry to keep you all in the dark with this fic and I really did not mean to drop off the face of the planet. My computer decided to die and it is hard to get parts for my machine were I live.**

**I am back and I promise I will be posting the rest of this story thick and fast so watch this space.**

**Thanks to all those who are still sticking in there with this story...now on with the show!**

Tosh threw her glasses onto the desk in pure frustration. She was getting no-where fast even after a few hours of analysis all she had to show for it was that the energy signature was the same as the one that had occurred in the hub in the early hours of that morning.

This, she thought even Gwen could have guessed.

"Frustrated Tosh?"

She jumped a little and turned to see Owen and Gwen walk in.

Sighing she turned to them.

"I've got nothing. This energy signature at the warehouse and the one here they are a definite match but I can get nothing more than that. There's something else there but I can't seem to follow the trail."

"Trail? What _are _you on about Tosh?" Owen asked,

"There's a trail, it's almost like a matter stream but it doesn't seem to have a point of origin, If I can't find the point of origin I have no hope in finding the destination. If I can calibrate the correct frequency I might be able to get a fix on it but……….."

as she kept talking she ran her hands through her hair, staring helplessly at her screen. Owen could see the pure frustration on her face, the set of her mouth as she spoke in some language that made Owen's head spin. it made him squirm on the inside.

_No Harper, bad Harper, quick…say something…..say it!!_

"Tosh, save the technobabble for your chess club hey?"

_Shit_

Tosh froze in midsentence, turning away from her monitor she walked straight up to Owen and landed a slap right across his face.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Can't you give it a rest Owen? Just for 5 minutes can't you just give it a rest? DAMMIT!"

"Shit Owen, how about we all just concentrate on finding Ianto hey"

Gwen grabbed Tosh by the arm to lead her back to her terminal talking to her in a low voice.

Putting his hand up to his face he found it didn't sting at all.

Owen mentally cursed himself 20 times over and didn't move for a long time as he watched the two women pouring over terminals. Looking down to the bag he reached in and plucked the small box he had found at the warehouse and walked over to place it on Tosh's desk.

Without looking at her he mumbled.

"I found this at the warehouse near Ianto's stuff. It might be something we should look into."

He didn't look up to make eye contact with either woman then he turned back to head to his lab to run the samples he took from the warehouse.

********************

Ianto was shoved hard into the room as he fell to his knees. Leaning forward on all fours he took a moment to try and clear his vision.

His head ached and his body burned.

The things Thomas had said made no sense to him at all.

Whatever information he thought Ianto had in his head was either long buried or didn't exists in the first place.

It made Ianto shiver slightly when he thought of what he would do to him if he could not produce what he wanted. He was sure Thomas had other methods than a few goons roughing him up and the chances of a rescue seemed to be getting fairly dim.

He felt miles from anywhere familiar, he didn't know of course, having no access to the outside world, but he felt so distant from anywhere near home.

No, Ianto seemed to be in this one alone and that more than any threat terrified him.

********************

Jack pulled up outside the cemetery and followed Tosh's map to the plot he needed.

From a long way off he calculated the plot that was Connors but kept his distance. It was a long shot and he was playing a hunch he knew that, but it was the only lead he had at this point.

Jack watched and waited.

Cemeteries the universe over always had a peaceful but lonely vibe. They projected a reverent serenity that always left Jack a little melancholy, like he was always a spectator, never to be privy to this last final and intimate act in the lifespan of all living things.

It was ironic when he thought back over his life to when he was a young go getter at the time agency he always believed he was immortal. Like most young men of that age he thought nothing could touch him.

It had messed him up realizing he couldn't die, he spent many of those first years when he found himself back on earth waking up with something sticking out of him and a feeling of disappointment and shame that he had woken in the first place.

It was his penance he knew that now.

Those years in the time agency, when he went rogue. His time as a con-man. When he thought back to all those people he had hurt he realized with a frightening clarity it was his punishment. Everything he did now, every life he saved was reducing the debt against his soul, he only hoped one day the bill would be repaid and he could find some peace.

His musings where interrupted as a figure was picking a path through the rows of headstones. To Jack's disappointment the figure stopped by a gravestone a few rows away from Connors.

Really Jack, he chided himself, you didn't think it would be that easy now did you?

Sighing he began to wonder if this wasn't s gigantic waste of time. It was about time he checked in with the others. For all he knew they had made a breakthrough and where looking for him.

He turned to walk back to Tosh's car and was met immediately by a woman training a gun on him, the intense green eyes that shone out from beneath the cap where exactly as he remembered.

Jack grinned from ear to ear. Now at last he was getting somewhere.

TBC


	20. Chapter 20

Ianto must have fallen asleep. He was lying in an awkward position on the metal bed, his back shoved far up against the wall.

Carefully he untangled himself stretching stiff, sore muscles, wincing as they protested against the movement.

Blinking he took in his surroundings. Nothing changed there he thought to himself, it took him some time to get his bearings again and as he looked around he saw the tray sitting by the door.

It had fruit on it. An apple, grapes, an orange and a banana. The last item made him smile as for more than one reason the banana reminded him of Jack. He grabbed it and unpeeled it hurriedly, now realizing how hungry he was. There was a cup of water on the tray too but he ignored it. He didn't really trust the contents of the cup but at least he could trust the fruit, well the stuff that wasn't peeled and at least it would give some thirst relief.

After eating the banana and apple he pushed the tray away and sat back down on the metal bench.

It wasn't long before he heard a key turn in the lock and he stood as two different men took him by the arms and escorted him yet again down the corridor and into the room before they forced him into the chair and secured his arms and feet.

They left him sitting alone for what seemed like forever before the handle of the door once again opened.

David Thomas was looking forward to this part of his interrogation. He was so close to finishing his work, to achieving all that he had worked so hard for and nearly lost so much of.

It had taken him a long time to find Ianto Jones, and an even longer time to perfect the model. The last piece of the puzzle was now here, all had to get now was the memory.

"Hope you enjoyed the fruit Ianto"

"Well a very wise man once told me bananas are good for you. It's all the potassium."

Ianto was aware he was blathering. Trying to keep the man talking, anything to distract him from his task.

"I've waited for this moment for a long time Mr Jones. Now you are going to give me what I want."

It was then Ianto noticed a metal tray to the side of him. It was loaded with long rubber band, alcohol wipes and a very long syringe.

Ianto's eyes widened in fear as Thomas laughed.

"That, Mr Jones is just an aid to help me get what I want, what you have."

He pressed a button near the door and the two men re-entered the room. One took up residence behind his head and he felt two rough hands being placed either side of his face to hold his head still. Immediately he started struggling but it was futile, the hands provided little resistance. The other guard then placed sticky pads on either side of his head that where now being attached to wires from a small machine.

Ianto was focused on remaining calm. If he had something that Thomas needed he knew he wasn't going to be killed just yet. That thought wasn't all that comforting.

The rubber band was now being placed around his upper arm and pulled tight so that he veins in his arm now stuck out. He watched with side eyes as Thomas picked up the syringe.

"Oh don't worry Mr Jones. I assure it is safe."

That smile was starting to really get on his wick. He would dearly love to wipe the smug, self righteous grin from the man's face.

He stared at him as he felt the needle slide into his arm and a burning hot liquid oozed itself into his veins.

"No, what the hell are you giving me…."

Ianto felt woosy, the burning started to spread from the very tip of his hands to his toes. His head started to crawl, all of his nerve endings felt like they were on fire.

His eyes tried to focus on the smiling mad man in front of him. When he spoke his voice came out slurred, uncontrolled.

"Wha yoo do…..wha yoo give me…"

"Nothing to worry about Mr Jones. You have a memory that I need and this is the way I will get it. It's just some sodium pentothal mixed with a low level of barbiturates. I have a little plan to access those deep memories with the aid of some chemical help and a little kick of course from my friend mr sparky."

He indicated to the machine. A small jolt of electricity should help stimulate the memories and the sodium pentothal meant his tongue was also loosened so when the time came he would be more than willing to tell him all about everything he was seeing and the code would be his.

"Now I am sure you have been told this before but this might sting a little bit"

Thomas hit the button on the machine Ianto felt his control slipping as a white hot pain erupted in his brain, images flashed before his eyes as he tried to grab hold of them but they were too fast. He felt sick, it was like his life flashing before him on some hurdy gurdy carnival ride until he settled on one image. With colossal effort he forced himself to grab onto the image and not let it go. Every fibre of his being screamed with the effort at first until it was taking less and less effort to keep hold of the image.

"What do you see?"

Ianto fought the urge to answer. Again the voice asked, with urgency he could no longer ignore.

"Tell me what you see?"

Ianto smiled.

"Jack, I see Jack, he's smiling."

This was going to be a little tougher than he thought. The young man had a good resistance to this he thought as he increased the dose of drugs in his system.

"Not quiet the memory I was after Mr Jones. I need you to go back to London. Back before the metal moved in."

Ianto screamed as he felt the burning through his veins and he was about to find out there were worse things that could happen other than death.

tbc


	21. Chapter 21

"Captain Jack Harkness, now what would you be doing in a place like this?"

Jack had spun around to come face to face with the woman who was training her gun steadily right between his eyes.

"Ah you know, the scenery, good company, gives a man a place to think"

Jack was eyeing her warily knowing he had one chance to convince this woman to help him.

"Really Captain, I thought you were more of a rooftop kinda guy."

So she had been watching for longer than Ianto or he realized….

"If you know so much about me you know why I am here."

Jack still kept eye contact on her as she moved the aim of her gun squarely over his heart. From reading her file he knew she was deadly accurate and he did not need another setback right now.

"Sorry Captain. You have me at a disadvantage here, Now my finger is getting a little impatient and you need to answer my question. What are you doing here?"

"I need your help?"

Her eyes narrowed considering Jack for a moment.

"Something's happened hasn't it? Where's Ianto?"

Jack detected a slight panic in her voice. Good he thought, I can use that.

As he spoke the words caught in his throat.

"He's missing, I think Thomas has him."

The gun faltered as she took in the news but she regained her composure as she spoke,

"What exactly do you think I can do about that?"

"I think you can do plenty, I think you can help me find him."

"Listen, I did my bit Captain. I gave you the warning if you were to stubborn and arrogant not to pay heed to it and get him the hell out of Cardiff then that is not my problem."

She turned to walk off, holstering the gun under her jacket as she went. Jack rushed after her and held her by the arms as she struggled to get away,Jack held her tighter against him.

"Let go of me"

Jack held her tighter still and turned her to face him. Desperately he whispered.

"Please, I have to find him and you're the only one I know who might be able to help."

Jack felt hope as he saw tears forming in her eyes to match his own.

He decided to press his luck just a little further.

"You where close once, you used to call him 'little brother' now I know you still care for him or you wouldn't have left the warning."

Jack let one hand go, relieved when she stayed put as he reached up and turned the locket she wore around her neck over and recited the inscription.

"To my big sister, Happy 30th, may you have all you deserve and more. Love your little Brother Yan xox"

He let go of the locket and her as she took a step back, placing her own hand over the locket she held it tightly, closing her eyes as tears threatened to fall.

"Dammit, how could you let him get caught?"

"It was a trap"

She opened her eyes and was surprised to find moisture behind Jack's stormy blue.

"I should have seen it coming, I should have protected him, I failed him and now I have to put it right."

There was desperation in his eyes and in his voice that was hard to ignore, she knew that look, she had worn that same look once upon a time.

There was no question, she knew that and she would help him, maybe it was the firepower against Thomas that she was looking for.

"I can find him Jack, but I need something from you too…..you have to make me a promise."

"Anything." Jack answered, a little too quickly, desperate for any leverage he could get to bring his lover back.

"I get Thomas."

Jack hesitated, staring back at her, he didn't answer as he contemplated her request.

Sensing his trepidation at her request she walked him to the edge of the arbor pointing out across the plots to where Jack knew her own lover lay.

"That is all I have left Captain, and the reason he is lying there has Ianto and I guarantee you it is for no goodly reason. That is my terms, take it or leave it. I get to kill David Thomas and you get Ianto back. Do we have a deal?"

Searching the woman's eyes he found them as closed as Ianto's. An icy cold stare shone out of her eyes, determination reflected in the green.

Jack understood a little about payback and retribution and at this point he didn't care if he killed Thomas or she did as long as he had Ianto back.

Nodding he replied,

"Deal"

He held out his hand and she shook it, sealing the deal.

Jack made to leave the arbor to make his way back to the car. He stopped as he realized she wasn't following. Turning around he saw her walking towards the shrine of her partner.

He watched as she stopped at the foot of the grave, her head bowed he saw her lips move uttering a prayer he could scarcely hear then she made her way back to the arbor where Jack was waiting.

"I'm sorry"

She looked at Jack, eyeing him critically until she sighed.

"We go by my place first; there is something I need to show you, something I need to get. Thomas has insisted on dragging you into this, you may as well know what it is all about."

Jack nodded as he lead her out of the cemetery and back to the car he had left in the car park and for the first time in 24 hours he felt things were going his way.

tbc


	22. Chapter 22

_The lab was quiet at this time of day. That's why Ianto liked it this early in the morning he could be alone to work on his research. Riley had entrusted him with running a program to interpret the symbols they had found on the bronze disc that had been recovered from a small flat on the south side of the Thames._

Unsure of its origins he had been instructed to run it through the universal translator program Riley had developed in the hope of working out what it did or at the least where it had come from.

While he waited for the program to load he finished the brew of coffee he had started when he first arrived. Sometimes it seemed he lived on the stuff.

When they were busy he could definitely attest to the fact he would consume little else.

Settling down on his chair he inhaled the coffee, savoring its rich smell before taking his first sip.

"Good morning Mr Jones"

Startled Ianto jumped and slopped coffee down the front of his shirt.

"Sir" he managed

Immediately he was on guard. It was never a good thing when any of the bosses decided to pay a visit.

Putting on his most cheerful impassive voice Ianto said,

"Assistance Director, what can I do for you"

"Oh just checking in…..wondering how you are getting on, new technology I see? So what does this do?"

Ianto watched as Thomas picked up the disc surveying it.

Ianto took a step closer and picked it back out of his hands.

"Still running the analysis sir, I am sure Ms Jenkins will let you know as soon as we have something"

"So for now you can get the hell out of my lab David"

Both men span around to see Riley standing by the door. A grim smile on her face.

"Ah Miss Jenkins it is always a pleasure to see you, especially here in your…" Thomas looked around with a sneer on his face before continuing. "Natural habitat"

"Well it could be nice if I could say the same David but I'm not in the habit of lying."

Thomas' smile literally slid off his face as he walked up to her face, Ianto moved to close the gap _between himself and Thomas before catching Riley's signal for him to stay put._

"You'd do well to remember just who funds your little lab, one day you might find out your not as clever as you think you are."

And with that Ianto watched as Thomas walked out of the lab but the bad feeling that he had brought with him did not leave so easily.

"What was that about Ianto?"

"Dunno, he was very interested in our new acquisition."

"Anything come up on it yet?"

"No, it's still running though, any clues on what it might do?"

"I have a hunch but….not willing to share just yet."

She smiled raising her eyebrows and moved off to help herself to coffee. 

_  
_  
**"NO!" **

Ianto screamed as pain shot through his head, ripping through his body as he arched off the chair.

**"NO!" **

Ianto fought against the restraints as the memory of that place was starting to fade. He was confused, it didn't make any sense. It was a memory that was not his own, at least one he could trust and remember.

"A good start Mr Jones, it is near enough to the time I need. You remember the disc, it is clear in your mind I could almost see it."

"I don't…..it's not real, not a real memory "

"Yes, I supposed that is what you would think. But not to worry Mr Jones, I will make sure you remember them all."

He indicated to his guards to take the young man away back to his cell.

Roughly they dragged him to his feet and supported his weight down the corridor. His legs seemed unable to support himself as they shoved him unceremoniously onto the floor and slammed the door behind him.

He collapsed onto the floor, unable to move. His body screamed with pain and fatigue, his head fuzzy and unable to hold many coherent thoughts.

Even in this state he knew that memory was foreign to him, but even so, it felt right. Like he was unlocking a past that had been lost to him.

He didn't know what to do anymore, what was real and fabricated was blurred and he found he was running out of things to hold on to.

As he lay there he felt two strong arms resting on his back. He flinched and tried to get away from them.

He felt the hands running over his back and onto his shoulders as a mouth moved closer to his ears.

"Shhhh it's ok, I'm here."

The voice smelt of Jack. Smiling he rolled over to find himself face to face with his Captain.

"You found me"

"Nearly love, I'm on my way."

He felt strong arms help him over to the bed.

"Lay with me Jack."

"Always."

He felt strong arms encircle him and hold him tight.

A part of his brain could see the illusion for what it was.

He forced that part of his brain away as he held on to the beacon of hope.

"Will you stay till morning?"

"I'll stay as long as you need me."

"Find me Jack."

"I will, I promised you remember."

"Yes, you promised me."

Ianto felt his eyes grow heavy as he slipped into unconsciousness content for now in the dream of his lover's arms.

tbc


	23. Chapter 23

**Jack followed Riley into the small bedsit.****  
**

**It was tidy, almost a little too tidy; this woman would give Ianto a run for his money and it made Jack wonder if this was who the young man got his OCD tendencies from.**

**Ianto, every time Jack said his name whether out loud or in his head he found a cold burning fear settling, threatening to throw him into a panic where his brain ceased to function.  
**

**Gotta keep objective Jack; keep it professional, you are no good to him if you fall apart. You are no good to your team if you fall apart.**

**"****Captain?"**

**Jack snapped back to the present.**

**She nodded motioning for Jack to come through to a small room off to the side. Entering, Jack took a few moments to accustom himself to the light. **

**When he found he could focus he drew a glance. There was Thomas, like a time stamp of his life measured out in ordering coffee and eating lunch, walking through the Plass.**

**"****It's not as exciting as you might think, following someone, watching their every move. Things got really interesting when he started all of a sudden hanging outside of the Plass and it didn't take a genius that he tracked down Ianto."**

**She pointed to a photo of Jack and Ianto, a ghost of a joke long forgotten still playing out across their faces. Jack reached out hesitantly before withdrawing his hand, fighting the urge to pluck it off the wall.  
**

**Watching Jack's face Riley pulled it off instead and handed it to Jack not making eye contact and not saying anything either, she knew a thing or two about holding on to a lover.  
**

**She moved back to a small laptop computer and fired it up, allowing Jack the time to recover himself. **

**He cleared his throat before folding the photo and shoving it into the pocket of his great coat.**

****

Addressing Riley he asked.

**"****What made you start following him?"**

**"****Back before……before…….." She paused, **

****

Jack rested a hand on her shoulder and she snapped her eyes up to make contact with Jack's. Nodding gratefully she took a breath and continued, as she spoke Jack dropped his hand again into his coat pocket to run fingers over the photo.  


**"****We had been tracking Thomas and Yvonne for a long time. They were planning something, or involved in something they shouldn't be."  
**

**Did you ever find out what?"  
**

**"****I had my suspicions but could never find any evidence I could use in court. He had an unnatural interest in cyber technology and anything we found remotely linked to that he was all over us. When we found this disc he couldn't wait for us to analyze it, drove me nuts coming into my lab every 5 minutes.."  
**

**She handed Jack a photo of an ancient looking artifact, it was flat with raised symbols in a language Jack did not understand.**

**"****You don't recognize the language?"**

**Jack shook his head.**

**"****Ianto did"**

**Jack raised his eyebrows.**

**"****It's a very old dialect of Welsh, Ianto had started translating andf from what I know he was about finished it when, something happened, Yvonne had it forcibly archived."**

**"****Do you know what it was about?"**

**"****I didn't know it had happened till about a year ago."**

**"****What?"  
**

**"It was not long after Connor died, they had sacked me but I kept in touch with Ianto. I was crazy back then, I wanted to bring them all down, kill them all. But Ianto kept me sane, kept me from doing something very stupid. But then, when Canary Wharf happened I lost contact with him and I kinda hit the wall, I don't remember very much from the months after that I'm ashamed to say."**

**She drifted off, lost in a memory.  
**

**"****What happened?"**

**Drawing breath she said matter of factly,**

**"****I got clean, saw a therapist and did some hypnosis; it was through that I discovered I had some memories wiped, me and Ianto. All to do with this disc."**

**She pointed to the photograph.**

**"****I have a feeling it is all tied in with that forgotten memory, so that is why they took him. When I found Thomas again I knew it couldn't be good."**

**"****So you have been following him for a while?" **

**She nodded.  
**

**"****Pretty much ever since I tracked him back to Cardiff about a year ago."  
**

**"****So you know where he would have taken Ianto? Where he works out of?"  
**

**"****Sorry Jack, I wish I could say I did but…..it's like…..I can track him through the streets, I get an alert whenever he shows up on CCTV and from there I can track him, but there comes a point where he seems to disappear. There is an energy trail and it looks like he is using some sort of teleport but without proper equipment I can't track it."  
**

**"****So if I could give you the proper equipment?"  
**

**"****I can track it Captain, I can find out where he is."  
**

**Jack smiled, **

**"****Ms Jenkins I think you and I are in luck."  
**

**"****Call me Riley."  
**

**She moved to pack up the computer as Jack walked out of the room to wait for her.**

**A few minutes later she emerged.  
**

**"****Ok Captain Harkness, ready to go?"  
**

**"****I'm always ready, and it's Jack."  
**

**The grin was infectious. She had a very good feeling about this man. **

**Maybe she was wrong about Torchwood 3, maybe the rumors are true and this man had already proven himself in building a better Torchwood. **

**Maybe she didn't care anymore, maybe there was too much water under that bridge no matter how good this man was. **

**Taking a deep breath she pushed aside her feelings of walking back into the lion's den and closed the door to her apartment to follow Captain Jack Harkness into the breach and finally get justice for Connor.  
**

******************

**He was close, he could feel it.**

**The final pieces were starting to slide into place.**

**It had taken a long time to get the project back on track after Canary Wharf, he had been tantalizingly close to finishing his master work when Yvonne started her meddling. She was always impatient and wanted things done yesterday. He knew there was more at stake that some guts or glory power struggle. Well for him at least there was more involved.**

**He sat watching his final piece of the puzzle as he curled up to sleep on the metal bed. The young man was proving more difficult to crack that he thought. Asleep the young man looked…..peaceful. It was perplexing really, he hadn't expected that. Maybe there was more to this man than just the key buried in a suppressed memory.**

**He couldn't think on that now, all he could do was remain focused on the goal. He had covered his tracks well, there was no way anyone could track him here, he didn't care how brilliant Harkness and his people where. He was going to get what he wanted and this time nothing was going to stand in his way.**

TBC

**(yes as you can probably tell from this and other chapters my techno-babble is not the best. Please forgive me for this chapter, previous ones and ones yet to come! It may not be wholly technically accurate but please forgive and enjoy the story!)**


	24. Chapter 24

**Gwen stretched and rubbed her eyes as the CCTV footage rolled before her.  
**

She had been over it, under it, forwards and backwards and still nothing jumped out at her.

She had watched the Hub from the break in the night before, she watched as Jack's bullets flew back into his head, she watched as the intruders ran back up through the tourist office and then they just disappeared.  
She checked every conceivable angle and line of CCTV footage she could get her hands on and still there was nothing to be gleaned from it.

It was beyond frustrating.

She got up rolling her head to the side to loosen up tightened muscles and as she looked up her eyes fell on Jack's office which was in darkness. He had been on a 'mission' according to Tosh. Gwen hoped wherever the hell he was he was having more luck than them at tracking down Ianto.

She made her way to Owen who was in his lab, testing the samples he had taken from the warehouse.

"Jack back yet?"

He asked without looking up from his computer.

"No not yet. Found anything?"

"Blood is definitely Teaboy's no shock there. There is a fingerprint on the coms that is not any of ours or Thomas' so I am running it through the database and hopefully I can get a match."

"So what is this?"

She picked up the bag holding the square box Owen had found at the warehouse.

"Dunno, have to give it to Tosh so she can run some test."

"So why haven't you given it to her?"

No response.

"You're scared of her aren't you?"

Owen aimed for a casual tone as he replied.

"Dunno what you are on about Gwen."

"Why did you have to bait her like that earlier?"

"Oh I don't know ok, just drop it."

"She didn't deserve that you know."

"Drop it Gwen." Owen said between gritted teeth while he suddenly feigned interest in the computer screen in front of him.

"All I am saying Owen is I know Tosh is a little too brainy for her own good sometimes and if that rubs you up the wrong way then you have to find a way to be civil, you know you have to work together and she didn't deser……"

"Gwen will you just drop it. You know for an ex-copper you have a surprising lack of intuition."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She sat back incredously.

"Just leave it alone Gwen, I'm dealing with this ok."

Gwen sat back in her chair with the look of a chastised child when suddenly it all became very clear.

"Oh my god you are in love with Toshiko."

Owen cringed at her volume.

"There you go again, clueless plod"

Owen tried the defensive but this time it lacked conviction.

"Oh Owen, not having a word of it. Why don't you tell her?"

"Gwen now is neither the time ir place to be having this conversation. Right now my only priority is to find Ianto."

"Couldn't have put it better myself"

The booming American voice rang out through the Hub. Owen and Gwen both jumped little as their Captain came into view.

"Conference room, 5 minutes."

They watched him retreat without another word.

"I hope he has found something cos we are running out of options."

Owen sighed. He saved a copy of the test he had completed so he would be able to call them up in the conference room if need be. As he went to leave Gwen grabbed his arm and said,

"Don't leave it until it is too late Owen, you both deserve better than that."

She released him and made her way up the stairs, sighing he grabbed the box and followed suit.

At the top of the stairs he turned towards the conference room and was met with Tosh. A heat broke out over his face and he hoped to god he wasn't blushing.

They spent an awkward few minutes trying to give way to each other only to find they both moved to the same side.

"Sorry." Owen muttered and moved to the side to allow her to pass. She said not a word as she moved passed him.

"Tosh?"

"She turned to face him.

"Yes?"

"I am sorry, you know, for before. I'm a world first prat sometimes."

She regarded him for a second trying to show no emotion amazed that Owen looked so uncomfortable.

"I know, come on, Jack has someone he wants us to meet, I think he has a lead."

As they entered the conference room Jack was deep in conversation with a woman neither of the team had seen before.

Turing Jack addressed his them as they took their seats in the room.

"Ok, Riley Jenkins please meet my team. This is ex-PC Gwen Cooper, Dr Owen Harper and tech guru…."

"Toshiko Sato"

Jack nodded as Tosh regarded the woman with a quizzical air.

"I've not totally been out of the game you know, I've been following your career for a while, it pays to keep up with the competition."

Jack smirked while Tosh blushed, she still didn't drop her guard though.

"Ok, team dazzle me with your brilliance."

Owen cleared his throat and took the floor.

"I went over the warehouse and grabbed the stuff he left behind. Torch, coms that sort of thing. The coms where broke, like they had been stood on. There was blood on them and also some drops on the ground."

Owen ignored the stiffening figure of Jack he clocked from the corner of his eye.

Drawing a deep breath he continued, knowing Jack wouldn't like the next part.

"One sample is from Ianto."

"Makes sense, I saw him get swiped by a weevil when they all rushed us."

Owen nodded.

"There was a second blood type so I ran it through the national register and came up with a local lad."

Owen clicked the monitor and the screen displayed the photo of a tall man.

"He's from the other night." Tosh said.

"Yep, I have an address for him as well."

"Excellent Owen, you me and Gwen will check it out."

"Jack there was also this box."

"What is it?"

"Dunno, been going through the archives, see if we have anything to match but……Tea….I mean Ianto was always so much better at this sort of thing."

"It's a teleport device."

Everyone turned to look at Riley.

She tore her eyes away from the box to look at Jack and his team.

"We never quite worked out the origin but, we figured out it teleported solid mass. Works on a DNA stream, from one fixed DNA point to another hence the blood I presume."

"Is there any way to trace it?"

"It's possible yes, we could……"

Tosh cut across.

"We could configure the scanners to trace the DNA stream, if it uses DNA from one fixed point to another it is possible Jack but highly unstable and not likely to be able to predict with any accuracy."

"If we had a DNA sample to work with from both Ianto and this guy then we would have a greater success at the accuracy of the location. By using the rift predictor technology and the power boost from the rift we could decrease the margin of error." Riley counteracted.

"That's pretty unlikely though and we only have a sample for Ianto, I doubt a few droplets from break in guy are going to be enough DNA to work with isn't that right Owen?"

Tosh defied Owen to disagree but the medic simply nodded earnestly in agreement.

"I'm sorry Miss Sato but I haven't heard any other plans at the moment and it seems to me Ianto needs all the leads we can give him."

Tosh went to counter argue when finally Jack decided he had had enough.

"We go with that Tosh I need you and Riley to work this together she gets full access to all our systems. Owen and Gwen, you're with me. We are going to take a visit to Mr Samson and get that DNA sample, one way or another."

"Jack?"

"Gwen?"

"Do you know what they want with Ianto?"

Jack looked to Riley as she fielded this question.

"It's about a device that Ianto had removed from his memory, he and I were retconned. Thomas wants to know about the device, let's just say he wants it for his little project and if he gets it to work, Cyberman would be the least of out problems."

Tosh turned to her and said.

"What does this device do exactly?"


	25. Chapter 25

******Thanks to all for the reviews and keeping with this story, is much appreciated!**

**So once again he was strapped to the chair. Once again into the breach.**

He wished to god that whatever Thomas wanted from him, whatever he thought he knew, that it would come back to him so this whole thing could be done.

"Ok Mr Jones, let's begin."

Ianto gritted his teeth as he felt the cold icey drug flooding his bloodstream. It was harder to fight it. Harder to **keep** hold of something tangible.

He felt like he was flying down a tunnel, flashes of faces, moments in his timeline seemed to fly before him giving him the slightly giddy feeling of being on a roller coaster.

Finally he stopped and found himself staring into the face of a smiling Jack.

"I don't think I can hold on too much longer Jack."

"I know, but it's ok Ianto, you can do this."

"You need to hurry Jack, you need to find me."

He felt Jack's hand as his fingers reached out to touch his face.

As Ianto closed his eyes he heard a voice that was neither his nor Jacks.

"Now Mr Jones let's see what else we can find."

********************

_"__ARGHHHH!"_

_"__Frustrated much?"_

_"__Huh?"_

_He regarded Riley as she sat bent over the disc. He dropped her morning coffee on her desk as he moaned in gratitude._

_"__Thanks little brother, I needed that."_

_"__Any luck with figuring that thing out?"_

_"__Not yet, I've run all scans I can think of but nothing comes up, how about the translation program?"_

_"__Ah yes, I had no luck with using any alien translation so I decided to take another look at the text myself. It seems it is a derivative of old Welsh. I set it through the translator last night so hopefully it should be just about finished."_

_Ianto noticed Riley's expression of bemused wonderment._

_"__What?"_

_Shaking her head she took another sip of coffee. Muttering she said…_

_"__I just happened to notice it was old welsh…… I knew there was a reason I kept you around."_

_"__That and the coffee."_

_"__Oh that goes without saying. So let's see what the translation has for us."_

**Thomas was practically salivating, this was it….this was the moment.**

**"****Come on MrJones…..what does it say."**

_Riley followed Ianto to the computer running the translation program as he pulled up the data._

_"__Ok, it looks like a sequence."_

_"__That makes sense."_

_Ianto raised one eyebrow._

_"__It's moveable, like a combination lock. So what is it saying?"_

_"__Ok, seems pretty straight forward. Two….I guess that's clicks?.....to the right."_

_Ianto read the instructions as Riley applied them, when she finally made the last movement the disc started to glow. Riley grabbed the scanner to see what exactly was happening._

_"__That's amazing…….it's generating its own power._

_"__Amazing?? That's a big call."  
_

_"__Ianto, you can't be a sarcastic sod all your life."_

_"__Ok, excuse me if I'm not all together riveted but I think between all the things I have seen since working here, an abject capable of generating its own power is not exactly on the top of my list as amazing."_

_"__Ianto, no you don't understand, it's generating huge amounts of power. Like I could run most of the northern hemisphere off this thing. I'll have to do a few more tests but…Imagine what this thing could do, clean energy, Ianto this is huge."_

_"__We could release a singl…."_

_"__Ianto I swear to god if you finish that thought I will kill you."_

_But she was smiling._

_They grinned at each other, both in awe of the discovery. They were so engrossed in their discovery that they missed the entry of a third party until a disembodied voice spoke behind them._

_"__Well, it seems this little discovery of yours really is going to put Torchwood on the map."_

_"__Yvonne, sorry didn't hear you there….." Under her breath Riley muttered…."like a vampire bat creeping silently through the shadows."_

_Ianto snorted and tried to contain himself._

_"__Something amusing Mr Jones?"_

Sobering up Ianto answered,

_"__No Ma'am."_

_"__So, a clean energy source. That is quiet a discovery. I'm going to need you both to pack this away so we can send it off to archive "_

_"__What are you talking about? The applications Yvonne, a clean energy source…….would solve a lot of our problems."_

_"__Yes……I would imagine you would think this way Riley, bottom line is the world is just not ready for this. I mean, the economic implications….well it's just too much to contemplate."_

_"__Are you KIDDING?!"_

_"__I never kid Ms Jenkins….not when it comes to money."_

_"__But Ma'am, we have a responsibility to report this, to use it…"_

_"__Mr Jones you seem to be under the assumption that I care about your opinion but I don't."_

_Suddenly men appeared in the lab, surrounding Ianto and Riley._

_"__What the hell is this Yvonne, get these men the hell out of my lab."_

_"__You are in no position to negotiate Ms Jenkins. I thought you two would need a little persuasion. A little memory adjustment to erase all memory of this disc."_

_"__You really are a piece of work."_

_"__Yes, I suppose I am. Thank you gentlemen."_

_Ianto struggled as the man grabbed him. Kicking out he landed a blow against something solid before he felt a bruising crush on the upside of his head ._

_"__Ianto! Don't struggle."_

_"__You idiots, no marks! We will have to modify his memory."_

_The men forced Ianto and Riley into a chair. Holding them down they stretched their arms out while retcon was injected roughly into their veins._

_Ianto felt his brain starting to slow down as he lost the battle for consciousness, a voice in his ear telling him lies, you fell, you hit your head and you tripped. He heard it repeated over and over he watched Riley as her eyes rolled back and the lids slid shut, pressing tears out as they rolled down her cheek and then everything went black._

********************

He had felt less pain this time when jolted out of the memory.

Finally things where starting to make sense, the lost memories now recalled.

"Well done Mr Jones."

Panting Ianto answered.

"So now you have the device, you can make whatever money you need, sell it to private enterprise whatever, I don't care. You have what you want, just let me go."

Thomas laughed.

"Mr Jones, this isn't about corporate espionage, this is about a resurgence, built back up from the ashes."

Ianto looked confused.

"Ok, let me give you a demonstration. Allow me to reintroduce you to an old friend."

Thomas accessed a flat screen that looked like a PDA. Suddenly there was movement from the doorway as a figure traipsed through the door.

AS the figure came into focus Ianto froze, it was as if he stopped breathing, a roaring echoed in his head and he wanted to be sick.

Standing before him, framed by the door was a woman he knew very well, a woman who had died twice. Once in a conversion unit and once on the floor of the Hub.

"Say hello Lisa."

tbc....soon!


	26. Chapter 26

**"****Ok, so you think you can track this? I've run every scan I can to trace this back, there is nothing more I can do and believe me I can do a lot."**

"I don't doubt it Ms Sato but I have something you don't."

"Oh?"

Tosh stood with her arms crossed. Riley hadn't missed the almost hostile stance of the young woman. It reminded Riley of herself as a younger woman, protective of her work, of her intellect.

But right now she didn't need it. Sighing she turned to Tosh,

"Look, I know your brilliant, I followed your career for a while and you where nothing if not astonishing. But I'm brilliant too; you need to understand that, it's not me bragging anymore than it is when you tell everyone how brilliant you are. It is fact, deal with it. I have one purpose here and that is to find Ianto and I think we are brilliant enough to do that together so from what I see you have one choice…work with me and maybe we can teach each other a few things and save someone we both love?"

Tosh was quiet, contemplative, after a short while she spoke,

"That's a great speech."

"Yeah well you come up enough brilliant people in your life you gotta find something that gets them to work with you so I take it your in?"

"Tell me where to start."

"Like the Von-traps…. Let's start at the beginning. The break-in here, you have CCTV?"

Expertly Tosh called up the footage and played it for her

Tosh watched Riley closely as the footage played out. Riley watched, absorbing the information. When the bullets rebounded from the force shield she paused the footage, rewound and played back again, pausing it at the moment just before Jack fired. Tosh watched as she zoomed into the larger intruder's hands and then preceded to clean the image up.

"There it is"

There what is?"

Tosh leaned closer to the image.

"It's a force shield. We came across some in a recon mission outside of London in my third year at Torchwood, took us ages to work them out, they draw heat and power from the user but they were always notoriously unstable. They used to cut in and out all the time, one of them exploded blowing a hand off so we gave up on them and archived them after 6 months."

Riley frowned, looking deep in thought.

"What?" Tosh asked.

"What did they get from your systems?"

"They accessed and downloaded Ianto's personnel file, the entire Archive section that we have on computerized file which is about half of our known archives. They got everything we had on Torchwood London and they had a look around the schematics of the Hub and the Plass. At first I thought they had downloaded the schematics too but it looks like they just had a look at it."

Riley nodded.

"They were probably looking for a safe place to teleport, the Hub would interrupt the signal too much."

Tosh nodded.

"I've been looking at the data they got and the way they got it. They seemed to go for stuff on weevils first, then got Ianto's personnel file, then got the rest of the archive stuff which tends to make me think that they were after Ianto's file and the weevil stuff all along, the rest was a cover up."

" 'You can see things a person tries to hide by the way they try to hide them' I like the way you think."

Tosh blushed,

"Pity I didn't see it before, I could have prevented all this."

Tosh bent her head, the worry clearly evident across her face.

"From what I hear and from what I remember of Thomas, if he wanted Ianto, at some point sooner or later he would have gotten him no matter how careful any of you where. You and me…..we are the best chance for getting him back and ending all of this."

She gave Tosh a half smile which she responded in kind.

"Let's get down to it then."

Tosh nodded rolling her neck.

"We better get him back I miss him around here. I'm beginning to understand why he understands so much of what I do if he was your apprentice."

"He was always a quick study, one of the fastest minds I had ever seen, and his coffee…does he still make coffee?"

"Oh yes, he has ruined us all, no-one makes it better than Ianto. One of the many other reasons we need him back."

"Let's get to it. Show me your tracking program."

Tosh nodded; despite herself she liked this woman, smart, straight down the line and someone who cared about her friend as much as she did.

*********************

Owen glanced at Gwen nervously as Jack drove hell for leather through the streets of Cardiff to the apartment of Justin Samson. Twice already Owen had seen his life flash before him and not for the first time he was grateful Gwen was in the front seat even though he was feeling car sick.

Jack brought the SUV to a sudden halt and was out of the door before the engine stopped firing.

Both Gwen and Owen ran to catch up with him, Gwen trying to get his attention.

"Jack."

But still he kept walking.

She grabbed his arm.

"Jack wait, please. Do you want to lose this lead?"

At this Jack stopped.

"I'm listening, make this quick."

"We all barge in there he could escape out the back or teleport again, we have the element of surprise Jack, let's use it."

"What did you have in mind?"

Gwen could almost taste Jack's impatience.

"You and Owen go round the back and wait for my signal. I'll ring the doorbell and play the helpless maiden with car troubles while you two move in, that way we have him cornered."

Jack seemed to consider this before nodding his agreement and the two men moved off.

After a few minutes Gwen tapped her coms.

"In position?"

"Go Gwen."

Gwen unbuttoned the two top buttons of her blouse and pulled her cleavage up. Tousling her hair she walked to the front door and pressed the button.

Holding her breath and praying someone was home she felt enormous relief when she heard footsteps on the other side as they approached the door.

Plastering her best 'I wanna fuck you smile' on her face she aimed it at the young man who opened the door, the same man from the CCTV footage.

"Oh hi, I was, um wondering if you could help? I'm having some car troubles and my phone has died, can I use yours?"

The young man found it very hard to drag his eyes from Gwen's breasts to her face, licking his lips he nodded, motioning Gwen inside.

Gwen entered the house and was led down a corridor until he stopped abruptly and span around to face her. Gwen instinctively fingered her gun that was hanging from it's holster. He stared at her, she stared back. Then Gwen realized he was not staring at her face but still fixated on her breast.

Bloody hell, thought Gwen, it's just some sex starved kid.

"Phone's just there" He pointed to a table halfway down the hall.

"Thanks."

As he started to turn around Gwen could see the blurry outline of Jack and Owen at the back door at the end of the hall, thinking quick she fake tripped, making sure he caught her on her way down. Fake giggling she leaned in to him, half dragging him with her toward the ground.

"Ohh I'm sorry, I'm such a klutz. Thanks for catching me."

"Uh...um... no problem."

"Your girlfriend home honey?"

Gwen whispered in he's ear.

Gulping he shook his head.

"Excellent."

He flinched as he felt someone elses hot breath in his ear as it sent a wave of menace over him.

He felt the hard end of a gun against his back, at least he hoped to hell it was a gun, and it suddenly dawned on him, that 'woman broken down outside his house' fantasy only happened in the pornos he had stashed upstairs, and he was now in deep shit.

"Don't worry kid, this is just a gun cos I sure as hell ain't that happy to see you"

"Who the fuc....ahhhhh.."

Jack cracked him right in the kidneys as his knees buckled.

"I don't like that kind of language in front of the ladies. Nice work Gwen, or should I say, nice work to the girls?"

Gwen poked her tongue out as she buttoned up the top buttons of her blouse.

"You and Owen do a search of the place, Mr Samson and I are going to have a little friendly one on one."

TBC


	27. Chapter 27

**Pushing Justin Samson into the direction of he kitchen Jack forced him into the chair using garden ties to secure his legs and feet. It was a cliché Jack knew, but not one that could be easily traced.**

"Hey watch it, you might rip my favourite shirt."

Jack punched him squarely in the jaw, sending the chair backward, only being stopped from tipping over by Jack's boot on the front rung.

"OK, lets make this easy huh, where is Thomas?"

"You're wasting your time, I'm not gonna tell you anything."

Jack grinned at him but there was no humor in it.

"We'll see about that. Actually I'd prefer the hard way, I got a whole lotta tension I store right here in my hand."

Jack flashed his hand before the mans face before taking it to the back of his head and slammed him face first into the kitchen table, a smattering of blood from the man's nose spattered across the table.

"That always helps to relieve it somewhat."

Jack turned his back to the groaning from Samson as he went over to the kitchen stove and turned on the gas burner, next he dug around kitchen drawers, only stopping once he found a metal flat bladed spatula. He placed it so that the flat blade was over the flame.

Panicked, the young man stated struggling against his restraints.

"What the fuck are you going to do with that?"

"If you tell me what I want to know, you need never find out."

"Look I don't know anything ok."

"Well you wont mind if I test that theory then"

Jack carefully picked up the glowing spatula.

"Now I will ask you again, where is Thomas?"

"I wont tell you, I can't."

Sweat was pouring out of the young man's face as he eyed the glowing device in Jack's hand.

Without batting an eyelid jack applied the firey end to the young man's shoulder and watched as the man's t-shirt melted away and the spatula burned through skin.

Jack ignored the screams, the smells of burning material and flesh as he released the metal and placed it back on the heat. The smell of burning flesh filled the small kitchen as the pants from Justin Samson steadied to become long curses.

"You can make it easy on yourself if you tell me what I want to know."

"You bastard, I told you I don't know anything but I'll tell you this, your man......he screamed just like me when Thomas tortured him, Thomas didn't stop even when he begged for mercy."

Jack smacked him hard across the face before grabbing the spatula. He brought it so close to the man's face that a fine sheen of sweat broke out from the heat.

"OK, so we play it your way, the hard way."

And the man screamed as burning metal scorched his flesh.

*****************

"What the HELL is Jack doing to him?"

Gwen turned to march down the stairs before Owen stopped her, grabbing her arm.

"Leave it Gwen." Owen warned.

"Owen he could kill him, not to mention the slow torture Jack is capable of break more than a few of the Geneva Convention rules."

"Not sure Jack is too worried about that. Look Gwen just leave it, Jack knows what he's doing."

"Hmph, I doubt that, not when it comes to Ianto, it's scary to think what he is capable of."

"So if it was Rhys, you wouldn't do all that you could to save him?"

Gwen was silent, she reluctantly turned back to the room to help Owen move a trunk from the bottom of the wardrobe and out to the bedroom floor. Using the but of his gun Owen broke the padlock and swung lifted the lid.

Owen whistled.....

"Makes my collection look tame."

He reached in and pulled out copies of porn on dvd, magazines, pictures. The trunk was practically filled with glimpses of flesh.

"Seems a bit extreme, sad even, just a kid really"

"Why? Because of a porn collection? I've known plenty of grown men with collections larger than this."

"Remind me to get Rhys to show me sometime....OI!!"

Gwen swatted Owen up the backside of his head.

Owen dug down to the bottom of the trunk, shifting the collection to the floor. There at the bottom was about 10 or 15 transporter devices. Gwen handed Owen an evidence bag as Owen carefully scooped them up.

"I assume these are the shielding device?"

"Huh?"

"What they used that night they broke in, saved them from Jack's bullet."

"I suppose."

Gwen was distracted by the moaning that had now started downstairs, the screams now less frantic, but nonetheless painful and desperate.

Owen bagged up the items and said..

"Don't know if these will help but let's get them back to the hub."

"Yep, I think it's time we intervened downstairs."

Whether the rage was justified or not Gwen had been raised to treat human life as sacred. More than once since joining Torchwood that line for her was becoming blurry.

********************

Jack heard their descent from the kitchen as he wiped off his knuckles on the tea towel leaving a brown/red smear.

Meeting them at the door so as if to shield them both from what had transpired he spoke to Owen, deliberately avoiding Gwen's eyes.

"Retcon, Level 5 and a DNA swab kit."

The Dr reached into his bag and drew out the drugs and the kit.

"But Jack, that could permanantly do damage, level 5 is the...."

"Shut it Gwen"

Owen muttered.

Gwen swung around....

"But Owen....you know what that could do to him."

"Is the house clear?"

Again Jack addressed Owen, ignoring the protesting Gwen.

Owen nodded, handing Jack the drugs and the swab kit.

"You two meet me in the SUV."

Gwen touched Jack's arm, "Jack....."

Finally Jack looked at Gwen.

"That's an order got it?"

Gwen could not hold Jack's gaze, it was terrible, blank, although Gwen imagined she could see a hint of regret in his eyes, at least she hoped it was. She trundled off instead behind Owen as Jack turned back to the kitchen to administer the drugs, dissolving them in a glass of water before holding it to Justin Samson's lips as the young man drank thirstily.

Jack waited and watched as the young man keened and swayed in his chair, groggily he opened one eye and looked up at Jack.

"You will be too late you know. Too late to save him. Once he's got what he wants........he.........just let's you.......go"

And with the the young man lapsed into unconsciousness.

Jack was trembling, looking at the sleeping form of a young man upon whom he had just wiped the best part of 8 – 10 years off of his memory.

Good, thought Jack. Maybe it was a chance for him to start over, and Jack would most certainly be watching.

tbc


	28. Chapter 28

**Ianto watched in horror as the figure of Lisa Hallet walked slowly towards them. **

It just couldn't be, and yet here she was, it was. The walk, the way it carried itself, the way her, it's hands moved in time with it's steps, her...it's mouth set in a half smile, like there was a secret it was hiding from the world.

Ianto felt his heart hammering in his chest, his breathing hitched as the woman he had grieved for got closer and closer.

He raised his eyes to her face and as it came into sharper focus with every step she took, he chanced to stare into her eyes. It was there that the illusion fell away as instead of melting into warm brown, a hollow, soulless shell stared out. No humanity lay behind those eyes, no resemblance to Lisa, he saw no hopes, no dreams just a cold, mechanical stare.

As if the eyes weren't enough the voice sealed the deal for Ianto. There was no warmth it was so far removed from Lisa's.

Motioning to Thomas it said...

"My Master, how can I serve?"

Ianto felt ill..

Thomas stroked her cheek in a loving gesture that made Ianto want to lurch the contents of his empty stomach into the nearest bucket.

"Say hello to our guest."

For the first time it acknowledged Ianto, nodding it's head in his direction.

"Hello."

"What the hell is this?"

"Isn't she beautiful? My perfect creation and there will be more where she comes from, an army full of beautiful, unbeatable soldiers."

"Your more of a mad, delusional, fucked up bastard than I thought."

Thomas smiled before saying..

"Lisa? Teach our young man some manners."

Before Ianto could react he saw stars as a crushing blow across his cheek sent him spiraling backward in the chair.

It took a while before his head came back into focus.

"That is not kind Mr Jones, you really should be nicer to me."

He turned his attention back to Cyber Lisa, affectionately stroking her hair.

"It's taken more work than you could possibly imagine. I had to start all over again after the Canary Wharf debacle. I had to rebuild an empire so I came back here to Cardiff. It's amazing the things you pick up from the rift. Pay off a few desperate men, people will do anything for money, and this..."

He indicated Lisa,

"I perfected the look, perfect in every way. No metal, just all human."

Ianto watched as Thomas fawned over the cyber, his lovesick look making it impossible for Ianto to keep watching.

"There was just once last hurdle left, one last thing holding me back."

"A never ending power source."

Ianto started to feel all he pieces slide into place.

"I remembered Yvonne talking about your artifact so when I came back to Cardiff I had to try and look you up. I heard that you had survived, moved back home."

"You sick bastard, you'll never get …..."

"Away with it? I think you'll find I already have."

"So what now, you kill me?"

"Oh not so hasty Mr Jones, I thought you and I were having such a wonderful time catching up. No I think I will keep you around a little while longer yet, you have not yet outlived your usefulness. Besides, I need to make sure the little invention here works."

Thomas hit the side button to alert the guards to escort him back to his cell as he did Ianto noticed that the Cyber Lisa had shut down, the enormous power drain had all but depleted the battery cell.

No wonder he needed the power device and without it he would be unstoppable. He allowed himself to be dragged back to his cell, he had not the energy left to walk let alone think anymore. Dropping on the metal bed he curled up on his side, rolling himself into a ball to try and stop the shaking of his body, one thing that Thomas said, he had no longer outlived his usefulness, that alone disturbed him more than anything else he had seen that day.

********************

Jack bounded into the Hub with Gwen and Owen in tow. He was seemingly oblivious to the bickering going back and forward between his two employees.

"But your meant to be a Doctor, Owen, what what about that hippocratic oath huh?"

"Don't you quote that at me Gwen, what do you think would have happened if we had of just left him huh?"

"Come on Owen, there are degrees of this stuff. He will be lucky to remember how to tie his shoelaces."

"Gwen, shut the fuck up or at least change the record huh, he was lucky to walk away still breathing."

"I'm beginning to think that would have been kinder, I mean at...."

Suddenly Jack stopped and span around looking straight in her eyes, only inches from her face, in a low voice he said,

"Gwen, let me ask you a question. If it where Rhys what would_ you_ have done?"

Gwen opened and closed her mouth, flailing for words as Jack watched her closely.

"Call the Pope, its a miracle, you finally got her to shut up."

Owen pushed past them both as Jack held her gaze just a little while longer before turningt o make his way to Riley and Tosh.

"So ladies, here is your DNA sample and a few more transport devices."

Owen dumped the bag on the table beside them.

Jack stood beside Tosh and asked,

"So how long till we have anything?"

"Well with this new information Jack and the extra devices the calibrating process should take about an hour....two tops."

"That long?"

"Possibly longer if you don't leave us alone to work."

Riley quipped, not looking up from the screen where she was typing away madly.

Tosh shot him an apologetic smile as Jack got the hint and headed for his office.

He closed the door and left the light off so it was in semi darkenss.

Reaching into his drawer he took out the bottle of single malt and poured himself a generous glass.

His hands where trembling slightly as he raised the glass to his lips taking a large mouthful.

Justin Samson's words hung around in his head, echoing in his brain, it was a confirmation of sorts of what his heart already knew, Ianto being tortured, just the image made Jack want to rage. He was ready to take blood, slowly.

Jack picked up the print out that Owen had placed on his desk. It was on Justin Samson. His photo stared out accusingly at him.

There was no question, the kid had a tough life, abused, kicked out of home, turning tricks to get by. He was just an easy target for Thomas to manipulate to do his bidding. Jack hoped removing those memories might give him a fresh start to do things right, that and the compensation fund Jack would set up for him. Not that any of his team would ever know he had done that, well only Ianto would know, and he would understand. Jack couldn't let the others know, they had to believe he was capable of anything.

He finished his drink and poured himself another as a light rap on his door revealed Gwen. Sighing Jack motioned her in. pulling out another glass he poured her a measure as well.

They sat in silence until Gwen spoke.

"Despite what you think Jack, I do understand what you did."

Jack gave a ½ smile.....

"If it where Rhys?"

Gwen nodded.

"Some justification though."

Jack said as he took another swig of the whisky.

"I used to think it was black and white, the Dr's oath 'first do no harm?' It's getting blurry."

She threw back the whisky and screwed up her face as it burnt her throat.

"Gwen?" Jack looked right in her eyes and grabbed her hand to make sure he had her attention before speaking next.

"This team needs you to still be that voice, I need you to be that voice nipping at our heels over the rights or wrongs. Just because I might ignore you sometimes doesn't mean I don't hear you."

She nodded as he let go of her hand as he drained his second glass. Looking around she smirked...

"You know Ianto is going to kill you when he sees the state of your office, I'm sure he has imaginative ways on how to dispose of you."

She smiled wickedly at Jack who smiled back, a dopey look on his face.

" well, you know this one time......"

"Jack, we've got it!."

Snapping out of his reverie Jack leapt from his desk, grabbing Gwen's hand and dragging her down the stairs.

********************

The last fly in the ointment, Torchwood 3, by now they would have caught up with Samson and he had the bait.

It was only a matter of time.


	29. Chapter 29

**Jack ran from his office, almost sliding down the stairs so his feet barely touched the ground.**

** Bounding over to Tosh's desk he could feel his heart hammering in is head as he said;**

"You have it?"

Tosh beamed at him,

"We have it, well as good as we are going to get."

"What do you mean?"

"Well even with the DNA trace signature and the rift scanner it is still only about an 80% accuracy rate to get any where near where we need to go, good thing is once we are closer we can get a much more accurate fix on the location."

Jack immediately started barking orders.

"Ok, lets move out, I want you all kitted out, full combat, leave nothing to chance. Gwen? Weapons, Owen? Pack a med kit, 10 minutes people at the SUV."

Jack watched as the they all scattered.

Tosh and Riley appeared to be working well together, packing the necessary equipment to make the necessary calculations of the location of Thomas' productions.

Sighing, Jack bounded back to his office to gather some things. His coat, ammunition for the Webley and his thoughts.

Staring down at his hands Jack noticed they where shaking. The past few days had been hard, it had been like a blur of rage, helplessness and more rage. Running his hand roughly down his face Jack shook himself, trying to prepare for what was ahead, the most dangerous part of the whole operation.

Jack was no idiot and he knew it would not be as easy as waltzing in and plucking Ianto out without consequences. Consequences for his team and for his lover, also big consequences for Thomas and Jack was determined to put an end once and for all to the legacy of Torchwood One.

********************

Ianto was pacing, it was what he did when things got too.......well, weird.

Ignoring the stiffness in his body he paced, a million things raced through his mind yet he was unable to hold many of them in his head for long.

Cyber Lisa, Thomas grinning at him, caressing his robotic creation, again the bile rose in the back of his throat as he fought down the urge to be sick.

How the hell was he going to get out of this and stop Thomas. He had to find some way to get a message out to Jack, hell anyone who would listen to stop this madness.

He needed a plan so as he paced and he thought.

********************

It was something like feeling a little motion sick, as if you had just stepped off a roller coaster ride after eating Candy Floss.

Riley looked over at the rest of Jack's team as they stumbled out of the SUV. They all seemed relatively relieved to be out of the vehicle but none of them appeared to look as nauseous as she felt now. Taking deep breaths she fought the urge to be sick as Gwen acknowledged her.

"Jack's driving? You get used to it after a while."

"Really?"

"No not really but Gwen is ever the optimist." Owen quipped as he walked past.

It turned out the signal was not that far from the main part of town so it was here they had come, an old abandoned industrial area that Gwen never liked.

As she looked around Gwen noted the cruel landscape, it was so far removed from anything she associated with her homeland, streaked with ugly, rusting metal structures, abandoned warehouses with smashed windows framed by a grey, miserable sky.

Jack waited impatiently while listening to the soft beeps of Tosh's handheld scanner. He knew he was close to Ianto now, he could feel it, he could feel him and for the first time in days he knew for certain in his heart that Ianto was still alive.

"OK, that's weird..."

"What?" Jack replied hurrying over to Riley with Tosh and the others in tow.

"The signal, it's strong and coming directly from over there."

She pointed to a old abandoned building across the street and down a few hundred metres.

"OK, why is this weird? Isn't this what you said it would do?"

Jack asked, looking from to Riley as the latter checked her own scanner.

"Wow, that's pretty accurate."

She looked up and clocked the confused look on Jack's faced, matched only by Gwen and Owen's.

"It wasn't meant to be this accurate, it as only supposed to give us an approximation of the location."

"So this is a good thing right? I mean cuts out on the leg work at least Tosh, and maybe you are more brilliant than you think you are."

Tosh blushed as Riley cut in..

"This is too easy, Jack it could be a trap, Thomas is capable of worse."

Jack nodded.

"Noted, but we have to get Ianto out and stop whatever it is he is planning. Tosh can you scan for surveillance?"

"On it Jack"

"OK lets see what we are dealing with then we will see how to approach this."

"It has surveillance cameras all around and inside although there is a blind spot on the east side of the building. Lock doesn't appear to be too tricky, looks like an electronic lock, should be easy enough to disable. Camera's cover all other entrances, Jack, Riley's right, this has all the hallmarks of a trap."

"I agree but what choice do we have?"

Four blank faces stared back at him.

"Right, Tosh can you disable the surveillance?"

"I can take them down but it wouldn't be permanent. it may buy us enough time."

He motioned to Gwen,

"You and me go in through the East entrance I want the rest of you to hang back, we make the diversion, draw the trap and then you move in behind us, element of surprise."

"Jack it's too risky, we would be stronger if we all went in together."

"No Owen, it makes more sense if we keep the element of surprise in this, I need you as back up."

"But Jack...."

"No Tosh, this is the way it will....."

"Jack!..."

"Listen to me I give the orders around here and I …..."

"JACK!"

Riley's yelled startling Jack enough into silence, but not for long as he began to speak only to be cut off by her.

"Stop being a prat and listen for one minute huh?"

Jack opened and closed his mouth and gave her a curt nod.

"With these we can track body heat, give's us an advantage on anticipating where they are so we can be ready to strike. If we split up we can weaken them, separate them and draw them out, we could preempt any trap they may have set."

Jack seemed to consider this for a moment before giving a slight nod.

"Ok you three, you take the east entrance, I want you to secure any hostiles, take them out and stay in communication. Riley, we go after Ianto."

They all nodded in agreement before checking weapons before setting out. Jack held Riley back a second to allow the others a head start before motioning to her to follow.

This was it time for rescue.......and retribution.

********************

Ianto had a plan, as he looked around the room he found himself in he surveyed his assets.

A metal bed bolted to the floor, yeah not so useful. He had a small tray on which fruit still sat. Hmmm, maybe useful for a brief moments surprise and then what? A small metal chair, again bolted to the floor....however Ianto cast his gaze downward to he big bolts holding it in place, then he gazed back to the metal tray, a small smile playing on his lips as he picked it up. Yes this would do quite nicely. He turned it on it's edge and painstakingly began to attack the bolts, fitting the edge of the tray into the slit of the bolt and turned.

As he worked, he smiled.

tbc


	30. Chapter 30

**"All clear."**

Tosh announced as she checked the read outs on the scanner.

Carefully the three of them walked down the corridor, Owen taking the rear and checking the way behind them. So far they were yet to encounter any hostiles and that very fact made Owen very nervous. Suddenly Tosh whispered...

"Up ahead to the right."

Looking at Gwen and Owen she held up two fingers. Silently and with weapons in hand they separated slightly, Gwen to the left, Owen to the right and Tosh coming up he center of the wide corridor. Aiming the weapons as they came around the corridor expecting to be face to face with the two that Tosh had identified.

Instead they found themselves face to face with nothing but more corridor. Puzzled Tosh ran the scan again, it was showing two heat sources, to human shapes and they should be right there in front of them.

"To-osh" Owen said in sing-song.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"They should be right in front of us, I don't know what's going on."

"We should get out of here, press on forward..."

Gwen said as she looked backwards and then up ahead through the corridor.

Owen and Tosh nodded, keen to be moving again. They had not taken two steps when Gwen heard the low moan coming from Toshiko as she slumped down only to be caught by a quick thinking Owen who gently lowered her to the ground before jumping into Dr mode.

"Tosh!........Tosh! Answer me."

Owen shook her gently but the young woman made no noise.

As he went to try to rouse her again a sound caught in his throat as he to slumped forward over Toshiko.

"Owen!"

Gwen was panicked as she swung around, pointing her weapon up and down the corridor from the spot she stood. Carefully bending down she checked Owen's pulse, it was strong and she sighed in relief. As she went to stand she felt a sharp jolt of pain near her neck and before she had time to register any more, her whole world went blank.

********************

"Here Jack....he has to be in here."

"Your scanner can trace Ianto specifically?"

"No, but it can tell you there is one person specifically behind the only door that appears to be electronically sealed."

She answered with only a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Smart, or should I say smart ass, so can you unseal it?"

"I can try."

Jack watched amazed as she reached into her pocket and produced what looked like a pocket knife except it was more electronic and when she switched it on it emitted a low hum. Jack smiled as it reminded him of a certain screwdriver, yes the Doctor would love this woman.

As she worked at the lock Jack kept sentry. They had come across two guards already which Jack was careful to stun rather than kill.

"Nearly got it."

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Just something that has got me out of more than one scrape."

As she finished her sentence the door clicked open.

Silently Jack drew his Webley as he nodded to Riley with his intentions of entering the room first.

Carefully he breached the doorway, swinging the door back and carefully looking around. He saw nothing but a cold metal bed bolted to the floor, he frowned as he saw a dented up metal tray laying beside four holes and as he stepped over the threshold, out of the corner of his eye he saw movement as a figure launched itself upon him and crashing metal cascaded over his head as he let out a yell and fought to keep consciousness. He turned to look up as Riley wrapped her arms around Ianto's trying to prevent him from raining anymore blows.

"It's OK, Ianto it's Riley, we're here to rescue you."

Faltering he stopped fighting against the arms that held him as he slowly recognised the coat, the shape of the form on the ground in front of him. Dropping the chair to his side as he whispered...

"Jack?"

Jack held up his hand as he tried to focus while trying to get to his feet.

Ianto merely gaped as Jack rose from the floor.

"It's you? You're real?"

Jack watched Ianto curiously, mentally searching his body for signs of injury as the younger man stretched out his hand placing it palm down on Jack's chest, making sure he was solid and real.

This was unlike anything he had conjured up in his head, carefully Jack took his hand and pressed it to his lips as he pulled the younger man into a crushing embrace. After a few minutes he felt Ianto relax, wrapping his arms back around Jack, hanging on hard.

After a few minutes watching them Riley cleared her throat causing Ianto to jump, releasing Jack as he drew his Boss' Webley from it's holster and aiming it squarely at Riley's forehead.

"Whoah, easy" Jack placed a calming hand on his back, not missing the tense muscles beneath.

"She's come to help save you."

The gun in his hand faltered as Jack seized the opportunity to disarm him...

"Riley?"

"Hey there Little Brother."

Letting go of Jack he moved forward to hug her.

"Long time no see huh?"

Riley muttered with a nervous laugh to diffuse the situation.

"My, my, my this really is a sweet reunion isn't it?"

All three of them jumped as Thomas walked in the room. Jack immediately raised his gun in line with the man's forehead as the urge to kill him dead coursed through his veins.

The man in his sights didn't flinch.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Captain."

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't?"

"Oh I can give you three...I believe it's Gwen, Owen and the very pretty Toshiko. I could make it hard for oxygen to come by while I have them locked in a sealed cell."

"You bastard!" Riley yelled as she launched herself to Thomas, only to be knocked flying by the guard standing sentry, the same guard, Jack noted, they had stunned earlier.

"A trap..."

"Yes Captain, and you walked right into it. That's the thing about emotional attachment, makes you stupid."

Ianto picked up Riley off the floor as she nodded that she was alright.

"It is so nice when old friends come around. Miss Jenkins it has been a while, how have you been?"

"Fuck you Thomas!"

"Manners.."

"So what now?"

Jack spat out.

"You are a problem I no longer need in my life, you and your little Torchwood gang so Mr Jones is going to do me a favour here but first you all follow me, it's much to crowded in here for all of us."

2 more guards came to join the others as the escorted the party down the corridor to the room Ianto had been taken many times before. Through the short journey Jack remained close, his hand touching his with a squeeze of reassurance.

Herded into the room Thomas ordered them to be separated with Ianto at the far end, Jack near the door and Riley off to the side.

Thomas took a gun from the holster of the nearest of his guards and approached Ianto, holding the but end out to him urging the young man to take it. Ianto reached out tentatively to take the gun, a puzzled look across his face.

"You'll find it is loaded. I need you to do a little job for me."

"And what makes you think I wont just take this gun and shoot you in the head?"

Laughing Thomas stepped back to Ianto, merely inches from his face, Jack moved defensively towards then but was grabbed by two very strong arms. Jack half turned to get a look at the face and gasped as it came into focus, somewhere off to the side he heard Riley curse in disbelief.

"Lisa?"

"No Jack!"

Ianto replied and without breaking eye contact with Thomas he added...

"It's not her."

Jack squirmed in the strong grip as Thomas spoke.

"Allow me to introduce you to my creation Captain, perfect in every way. Now where were we..oh yes, I believe Mr Jones needed a reason not to shoot me?"

Ianto didn't flinch as his finger caressed the trigger.

"You kill me and your friends suffocate slowly."

"Theyre dead already anyway, it's not like you will let them live."

"Oh Mr Jones, you are not the only one with access to retcon, I could be merciful, I could let them go. But you have to do one little thing for me."

Inching closer to Ianto so the young man could feel the warm, fetid breath he said,

"You will shoot your beloved Captain and your friends walk out of here. That is a promise I will keep. But as an added incentive I will throw in Miss Jenkins as well"

He turned his back on Ianto and walked towards Riley, pulling out a gun and aiming it straight at her head.

Thomas turned and studied Ianto, the gun trembling ever so slightly in his grip.

"It's a simple choice Ianto, your lover or your friends shooting me might make you feel better but you will never get to them in time to save them, that's if you get out of this room alive.

He gestured at the other armed men in the room who had now drawn their weapons out and had them aimed on Ianto.

"So let me ask you again, your lover or your friends?"

Behind Ianto's eyes Jack could see the pain of having to make this decision.

Flashing him a half smile He gave Ianto a nod of his head as if giving him the permission he needed to fire the weapon.

Ianto closed his eyes momentarily as tears fell from them, tracking a line down his cheeks.

Opening them again he locked eyes with Jacks who could see the conflict behind his lovers eyes.

Ianto trained his weapon on Jack, aiming for his head. He had to make it a clean kill, Jack would recover quicker that way and there was no way he was going to be able to shoot Jack in the heart.

Unspoken words passed between them, Jack projecting a calm reassurance, Ianto a desperate apology as he fired and the bullet passed neatly into Jack's head sending the Captain backwards, his eyes open in a vacant stare.

"You Bastard!" Riley directing her rage to Thomas who looked sickeningly pleased with himself.

"Bravo Mr Jones, wise choice." to his guards he motioned to Jack's body, "Take him down to the cells."

Ianto had not taken his eyes of Jack and he kept watching until they pulled him out of the room.

Lecherously Thomas now turned his attention to Riley.

Ianto wanted to scream.

tbc


	31. Chapter 31

"The old gang back together, makes you nostalgic doesn't it?"

Ianto was tied to the chair, Riley in another but not tied down. She was eying off Lisa who was standing in the corner, powered down.

Thomas addressed Riley,

"It's nice when old friends can get together, reminisce over old times. I bet you have a lot of things you would like to say to Ms Hallet."

"It's not her."

"Maybe not your version of her Mr Jones, this one is all mine."

"Riley, look at me."

Riley tore her glance from Lisa to Ianto.

"It's not her....ok"

Riley nodded slowly before staring back at the robot in the corner.

"Oh you remember her very well don't you. You remember her betrayal, you remember as the one who killed your husband and betrayed you all."

"She never killed Connor, you did, you and Yvonne, it's you who's responsible and you who I will kill."

"You know I for one was very grateful she had enough concern about her colleagues to tell me what you were all up to."

"Your a liar Thomas, she would have never betray us." Ianto spat.

"Am I a liar? What do you think Ms Jenkins? Am I a liar?"

Riley was silent, unable to meet Ianto's eyes.

"Tell me he's wrong Riley?"

She raised her wet eyes and the expression on her face told Ianto all he needed to know.

"She was concerned for the image of the corporation, she just jumped at the chance to betray her friends."

"Yeah was that after all that crap you span her about career advancement, about us making trouble? What was it she said to me? How she wasn't prepared to die on the barricade for no-one. I wonder if she had known what you had planned for Connor if she would have followed through?"

Riley spat this out unable to look at Ianto who was fighting his own internal battle with processing this information.

Thomas moved but inches from her face, his voice menacing.

"I could have given you the world, in your brilliance I saw my own. We could have done anything."

He ran his hand down her shoulder, moving down her arm, over her chest and onto her breast as she launched forward and spat straight in his eye. As she did he landed a crushing blow across her head that sent her backward out of the chair and onto the ground.

"Riley! Get your fucking hands off her! Riley?"

Ignoring Ianto, Thomas stood over her shouting,

"You really want to play with me little girl, I lost everything when the metal came. You have no idea what I lost, my life's work gone and it has taken me all this time to get it back."

Thomas leant down and grabbed Riley by the neck, pulling her to her feet as he tightened his grip on her, applying just the right amount of pressure as her eyes bulged and she struggled.

Ianto's head was roaring as he struggled against his bonds, desperate to break free.

Stop it....your killing her!"

Thomas did not break his stride.

"NO! Let her go!" Ianto screamed.

As if a light had been flicked back on in his head he released the hold he had on her neck, leaving her choking and gasping for air, dropping to the floor.

"Riley? Look at me...are you ok...please..."

Slowly she looked up and flashed him a reassuring smile before rising up on all fours , coughing to get her breath back, tears streaming down her face.

Neither of them had noted that Thomas was now with the Cyber Lisa, fixing the device to a space in her chest.

"It's done!"

"Master how can I serve?"

Ianto looked across at her and could easily see the burning blue disc in her chest, the power source in place. Gulping he felt a sinking in his stomach.

"Never ending power....once I work out how to duplicate this I will be unstoppable and you Ms Riley are going to help me. Take them to the laboratory"

He motioned to his guards to grab her up as two other guards untied Ianto, escorting them both out of the room. Addressing Lisa he said....

"Come my dear, let us see what they can do for us."

And he followed them out with his greatest creation in tow.

*********************

Jack gasped as he dragged in his first breath.

Trying to get his bearings he thought back to the last few moments before death, a pair of blue wet eyes staring into his just before the bullet that they had fired hit.

"Ianto!"

Jack gasped sitting bolt upright and immediately regretted it. The room as swimming before his eyes as he recalled being in that room, the strong arms of that thing gripping him, the desperation in his lovers eyes.

Dizzy and blanching he tried to raise himself from the floor however his muscles seemed to be betraying his will as he sunk pitifully to he floor.

"Dammit NO!" Jack groaned in frustration, willing his muscles to obey. Ianto needed him, his team needed him.

Gritting his teeth Jack hauled himself off the ground taking deep breaths as the room seemed to continue to move and sway. The room itself was no bigger than a cleaning closet, he could touch the wall from standing in the middle of it which wasn't a bad thing as Jack tried to steady himself.

Once he trusted himself enough to move he tested the door.....it was unlocked as Jack muttered a word of thanks that something was finally going his way.

Taking a moment to listen to any unwanted surprises, he carefully opened the door and moved out into the corridor. He used the small mark at the bottom of the door as a marker, lest he double back on himself, not that that was likely, Jack had an impeccable sense of direction, it was handy when trying to keep all his time lines straight.

Jack knew he needed to rescue his team before anything else. He had to take away that bargaining chip from Thomas.

Suddenly the quiet of the corridor was broken by low voices, ones that he did not recognise so Jack surmised it was Thomas' men.

Pausing to listen it appeared the voices where not getting any closer or further away which meant they could be guarding something...or maybe someones.

Sensing his Harkness luck change, Jack felt sure at the end of those voices where his team, time to get them back.

tbc


	32. Chapter 32

**Following the voices Jack stood quietly outside the door. Silently he weighed up his options, he**** didn't have a weapon but he did have one hell of an element of surprise so instead he decided to go with what he knew and use the Harkness approach. Barge in, shoot first failing that…turn on the charm.**

He took a breath and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me..."

He tried.

"Open up, Thomas sent me."

Jack relied on the assumption that most henchmen were not the sharpest knives in the drawer, no reason these guys where any different.

"What the hell does he want now?" Jack heard the guard mutter as the door was being opened.

As an arm poked its way through the door Jack took full advantage of his element of surprise and grabbed the guard, swinging him around and slamming him against the wall. As he did, in one fluid moment, he took the gun from the guards holster and brought it down upon his head, rendering him unconscious.

By the time the second guard had reacted Jack had swung around with the weapon trained on his head. Still using his element of surprise Jack strode forward and placed a well placed headbutt knocking him out cold.

Carefully he disarmed the men and dragged both of them into the room. As he did he heard Toshiko call out..

"Jack!"

"About time you showed up."

Jack span around grinning at the sight of his team, locked in a glass cube in the middle of the room. Jack shuddered when he realized just how serious Thomas was in his threat.

Jack crossed over to the cube, looking for a way to get them out.

"Doors over here Jack."

Gwen motioned to a small door on the far side of the prison.

"Stand back." He ordered.

They moved over to the farthest corner as Jack took out the weapon he had just taken.

Lining up the lock he squeezed the trigger once, twice then on the third time the door snapped open as the lock finally gave way.

His team spilled out as Jack turned back to what looked like a console desk.

"Ok I want this over, Tosh can you work any of this?"

Jack indicated to what looked like a series of CCTV set up around and inside the building.

"Give me a few minutes Jack and I can work anything."

Jack nodded as he handed Owen and Gwen their weapons back.

"Ok I'm online. I have visual to most of the building I can guide you through most of the way.

Oh…" She gasped as Jack did a double take back to her.

"What is it Tosh?"

"Is that……." With a shaking hand she pointed to one of the screen. Jack could make out Thomas and standing nearby was the thing that looked like Lisa.

"Fuckin hell!" Owen cursed.

"It's not her ok." Jack looked each of them squarely in the eye making sure they understood what he meant. Suddenly a crackle from a radio startled them.

"Branson, come in…"

There was silence.

"Say again, Branson, come in."

Owen strode over to the lifeless guard and plucked the com device from the man's ear.

Looking to Jack he waited until the older man nodded.

"Branson here."

"Sure doesn't sound like it, what the hell is going on down there."

"Yeah Branson is a little busy at the moment."

The disembodied voice yelled over the radio.

"Security breach in the cell room, all hands to the cell room."

Owen pocketed the radio and ran back to join Jack.

"Tosh I need you to be our ears and eyes you can do that?"

She nodded.

"Take their coms Jack, I can communicate with you, guide you through on a secure channel.

"Owen you with me, Gwen?"

Gwen nodded making to move off with Jack

"No I need you to stay here with Tosh. Your about to get very crowded in here when those guards catch up. I need you to help Toshiko, her surveillance will help us get through to Ianto."

Gwen nodded and added,

"Be careful Jack, go get him back."

He squeezed her shoulder before collecting weapons, stopping to pick up his Webley that had also been thrown with the other weapons.

"Lock the door behind us."

And with that they were both gone.

Turning back to the screen Tosh glanced at Ianto sitting in that chair with the incarnation of his dead girlfriend standing nearby and shuddered.

Jack's voice broke her out of her reverie.

"Ok Tosh, lead me to him."

She tore her gaze away from that room and focused solely on getting Jack and Owen through.

********************

Ianto and Riley sat side by side over a small bench filled with electronics, computers, a makeshift laboratory really.

"You'll find I have downloaded all the schematics to your little device….I'm sure it will not take you two long to get this duplicated."

"What makes you think I will help you?"

"I still hold your team-mates lives in the palm of my hand, would you care to test my will?"

Ianto turned back to the computer, looking through the schematics. Riley had been strangely quiet, looking over Ianto's shoulder.

Ianto jumped slightly when he felt, rather than heard, her whisper in his ear.

"You know we can't do this."

Ianto nodded.

"We can't give him this much power."

"We have to buy some time, I can't let those people die, we need time."

"Not sure that will help Yan."

"Trust me, we need to give him some time."

Riley was not sure what that meant but she trusted Ianto, for now.

A commotion outside of the door drew Thomas' attention as he stepped outside.

Riley and Ianto stopped, desperately trying to listen, catching snippets of the conversation.

"Well bloody well get down there and contain it."

Ianto smiled.

"I think time may be up"

Eyeing him critically Riley said,

"Ianto, do you remember the sequence?"

"What?"

"Do you remember the sequence to the device?"

Ianto nodded,

"I think so. Why?"

"If we want to get out of here we have to disable that thing." She indicated Lisa still staring blankly in the corner.

"With this you could do it."

She reached in her pocket carefully before Thomas returned.

"Take this."

She handed him what looked like a pocket knife that he recognized from years before.

"You remember how to use this?"

He nodded.

"On my signal I'll draw Thomas, you make a run for it and draw Lisa, get her out in the open, hit the sequence and that should disable her."

Ianto nodded and had just enough time to hide the object before Thomas walked back in.

"Get ready" she whispered as she rose, turning to Thomas.

"You can't expect us to work like this Thomas, I cannot work like this."

Thomas turned in time to see Riley descending upon him, launching herself on to him and using the element of surprise she yelled.

"Run Ianto!"

And he did.

TBC


	33. Chapter 33

**Riley felt rather than saw the figure run out of the room as she pressed down on Thomas as hard as she could.**

Drawing her fist back she connected it into the side of his head, satisfied with the groan and look of pain in his eyes. She kept up her assault, avoiding his hands as he tried in vain to find any purchase against her.

Suddenly she heard a scream that sounded like Ianto, it was just enough to throw her off balance, as she paused to listen Thomas took advantage of her lapse in concentration as he hit her on the side of the face while rolling them both over, now gaining the upper hand.

Once again he wrapped his hand around her throat, a mad glint in his eyes that scared her. As he choked he leaned forward, attaching his mouth against hers in a clumsy kiss.

Fighting back she twisted her head as she got a hand free, grabbing him by the back of his hair to pull him off. He drew back and landed a headbutt right between her eyes as she saw stars. Fighting for consciousness she felt his erection as he tried to violently rub himself against her, she tried to scream but no sound came out, she tried to fight but it was futile, he was too strong.  
So she did the only thing she could. The lack of oxygen taking it's toll as every muscle in her body seemed to burn with lactic acid. She felt her body betraying her as she lost the fight, giving into the sweet surrender of unconsciousness.

********************

They had come to a cross roads as the corridor branched off in two different directions.

"Tosh?"

As she spoke Jack heard a commotion in the background.

"What's going on down there Tosh."

"Looks like we have company. We are going to have to move from here Jack. "

"Tosh before you go which way do we go now?"

"Just a minute Jack….."  
Over the coms Jack heard the scuffle, yelling and sceraming, then the gunfire sounded.

"Shit!"

"Tosh?! What! What is it?"

"They've cut our power Jack we have to go, I'm sorry but you're on your own."

"Dammit! Be careful Tosh."

"Look Jack I can go back there, help them out"

Help Tosh, Owen thought.

Jack considered his medic for a moment.....

Turning to Owen he finally nodded, by Jack's calculations they had drawn most of Thomas' men to Gwen and Tosh's position anyway, they sounded like they could do with the back-up.

"Be careful and stay on the comms."

Jack watched until Owen was almost out of site until he turned and made his own way carefully down the corridor.

His team was on their own, he had to live with the fact he could not protect all of them and trust that they were well trained to deal with anything.

Jack froze as he heard muffled shouts coming from a room up ahead. Coacking his gun Jack raced forward, a burning in his gut about what he would find.

********************

Ianto ran down the corridor, heading roughly in the direction of his cell, he had no idea where he was heading; he was just hoping to buy enough time until he figured out the sequence that should produce a frequency to shut down the power.

The device Riley had created was exactly as he remembered. She had made it for Connor when he started going out on missions. It really was a multi-purpose tool except rather than blades it had flip screens, controls to emit signals to interfere with electronic power flow. Handy when you wanted to break in, more than handy when you are trying to short circuit something that shouldn't be alive. All he had to do was find the correct sequence, that and try and avoid the murderous cyber currently on his tail. When did his life get so complicated.

He was so busy with trying figure out the sequence he didn't see he had come to a dead end until it was too late.

"SHIT!"

Spinning around he started to double back on himself before he saw Lisa, blocking his escape. He threw himself into the nearest door which led him to the room where Thomas had tortured him for his lost memories.

As he flew through the door he felt a searing pain against his back. Screaming he used the momentum to force himself to his feet as he clutched a hand to his flank, drawing it back it was covered in blood.

Backing into the room he watched as the cyber followed him, a weapon trained on him as it chanted.........

"I will do my Masters will."

******************

Just as Riley was about to close her eyes and give in she felt Thomas' weight leave her and she was able to breathe again. Rolling out of the way coughing to get her breath back she turned to see a man in a coat she recognized, she thought it was an effect of the lack of oxygen when she realized, impossibly it was Jack.

She watched as he threw Thomas against the wall, watched as Jack pulled him up only to throw him back up against the wall.

She watched as Jack forced him into the chair, Thomas was broken, blood trickling down his head and he was whimpering over and over.

"Please….mercy, please……"

Jack turned to Riley grabbing her arm, ignoring as she flinched away from him.

"You okay?"

She nodded, unable to speak.

"Ianto?"

Still gasping for air she said...

"He drew out Lisa, he ran off down the corridor, he can disable her, but Jack…I heard…."

A scream rang out through the corridor, it tore through Jack's heart as he recognized it as his lover.

Pointing to Thomas he said..

"He's yours."

Riley watched as he bounded out of the door. She followed him out to shut the door behind him, trusting Jack to rescue Ianto.

Turning back to Thomas she watched as he painfully lifted his eyes to meet hers.

"Please, have mercy……please…".

"Oh I don't think so, this has been a long time coming."

Riley smiled, Thomas whimpered.

*******************

The mechanical voice sounded strangely hollow in this room, what the hell had it shot him with. It didn't feel like a gunshot, and it seemed to radiate pain throughout his whole body. He forced himself to turn his attention back to the pocket knife, he had to try the sequence, he felt sure he had got it right and he was running out of time.

As he pointed to activate it he missed the long arm of the Cyber Lisa as it knocked him off his feet. As he fell to the ground the pocket knife jumped out of his hand. Desperately reaching out to retrieve it he heard the chilling mantra again and again…

"I will do my Masters will, I will do my Masters will. I will do my Masters will."

It bent down over him as all his worst nightmares seemed to be descending upon him. He felt a hand being laid on him as a searing pain ripped through his body. It felt like every nerve was on fire, every cell being cooked as the voltage riippled around his body, all the while the mantra was repeated over and over again.

He turned his head to the side, catching a glimpse of the pocket knife. Ignoring the darkness descending at the corner of his eyes he stretched as hard as he could, fingers outstretched in a last ditch attempt. He felt his fingers close around it as he brought it closer, flicking the switch as it screamed out, breaking the mantra.

The cyber body collapsed against his as he felt the pain lessen. Unable to move, his arms feeling like jelly Ianto laid there and let the darkness overtake him.

tbc


	34. Chapter 34

"Ianto!"

Jack screamed as he ran into the room, sliding onto his knees as he pulled the cyber off Ianto in doing so he tapped into his coms.

"Owen! Owen status!"

"All clear here Jack, we got them all."

"Ianto is down, I need you up here, I've found them"

"Coming up now Jack."

"Hurry!"

Tentatively he reached down and blew out a sigh of relief when he found his pulse. There was blood on his head, trickling down his cheek like a macabre tear.

Tapping the side of his face gently Jack called his name again as he heard a soft moan escape his lips.

"Hey there gorgeous."

Jack tried to hide the enormous relief he felt when he saw Ianto's eyelids flutter open.

"Jack…"

The voice was painfully weak.

"You kept your promise"

Jack smiled and chuckling he held Ianto a little tighter ......."Always keep my promises to you Yan, always."

"Lisa…."

Jack made eye contact with him and forcefully told him.

"It's gone Ianto, it wasn't Lisa and you destroyed it."

He saw a smile grace his lips as his eyelids fluttered.

"Good"

And with that Jack felt him go limp in his arms as he lost consciousness again.

Tapping his coms Jack hailed his medic.

"Owen, get up here now"

"Already here Jack" Owen answered as he entered the room.

"Shit" he exclaimed as he took in the contents of the room.

Trying not to make eye contact with the prone robotic form Owen moved towards his patient.

Without another word he held Ianto's pulse looking for a steady rhythm and was pleased when he found one, not so pleased when he realized it was slower than he would have liked.

"Jack I need to examine him"

Jack didn't move.

"Jack! Let me help him, he has a good pulse but it's slow, Jack let go of him. Let me do my job."

Jack loosened his grip on Ianto, moving him gently to the floor. He took his coat off and bundled it up, placing it gently under Ianto's head.

He watched as Owen worked with more tenderness than anyone would expect knowing the medic.

"Will he be ok?

"Concussion, bruising, not sure what else until I can do a full work up, we need to get him back to the Hub."

Still Jack hovered nearby. Suddenly a voice sounded over the coms.

"Jack."

"What's your situation Gwen ?"

Irritated at the intrusion Jack forced himself to remain in control, to remain the leader, there would be time after to drop the façade later and his team still needed him.

"Tosh and I are secure Jack, but you have to come and see this."

He glanced at Owen and then at the still form of Ianto.

"It's ok Jack, he'll be ok"

Jack nodded, not trusting himself to speak at the moment as he moved out of the room. A sigh of relief escaping his lips as this whole nightmare was coming to an end and they were all intact, all of them.

Jack passed back to the room he had left Thomas and Riley in as the woman was coming out, closing the door behind ignored the spray of blood that splattered her clothes.

He shot her an inquisitive look as she answered with a small nod of her head and that was all Jack needed to know.

"Come on, the girls have something we need to see."

*******************

Jack led her back to where he last left Gwen and Toshiko. As they walked Jack felt her stealing glances at him until finally she spoke.

"How's the head?"

Jack sighed but did not answer.

"I'd heard rumors about you…A modern day urban legend."

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear."

"Oh believe me Jack, I learnt that a long time ago. You're a special thing Captain Jack Harkness."

Jack scoffed.

"You're secrets safe with me; besides, you may just be the savior of us all."

Jack managed a glance at her face that was now staring resolutely ahead, the ghost of a smug smile playing out on her face.

As Jack entered he was surprised to see the group of around 10 men all seemingly unconscious in the prison cube where he had found his team only an hour before.

"Gwen, where are you?"

There was a sudden movement near the wall of the room as Jack drew his weapon. The wall seemed to give way leading to a much bigger room.

"Jack?" he heard Gwen call.

"In here"

Holstering his weapon he and Riley made their way over to her, stepping through the hole in the wall. Taking a moment for their eyes to adjust to the light they both gasped as they saw what was inside.

Standing upright in rows upon rows, what looked like at first glance were mannequins. Body after body. Jack counted there must have been at least 500.

"Son of a bitch!"

Riley stepped forward, staring up into the faces as it dawned on her, she recognized them.

Jack watched as she extended a hand out to touch the hard cheek of one of the figures, running it tenderly down towards the chin. As she did Jack noticed tears running down her own cheek, like a mirror of the movements of her hand.

Moving from body to body she became increasingly more upset with each figure she passed, each face she cast her gaze upon. Slowly it dawned on Jack what was upsetting her as she stopped in front of one figure, letting out a choked sob and extending her hand to its face before withdrawing it again, too afraid to touch it.

Silently Jack moved towards her, standing close by and waited for her to speak.

"It's Torchwood Jack, all of them."

"I know."

He watched as she extended her hand out and this time did not withdraw it as it gently cupped its face. Eyes closed she let her hand linger for more time that what Jack was comfortable with.

He reached out and took her hand, placing it in his own he gently led her away from the form that resembled her partner.

"What do we do with it all Jack?" Tosh asked.

Pausing Jack answered,

"Burn it, burn all of it."

********************

Jack, Gwen and Tosh finished distributing the Retcon to those of Thomas' guards who had survived. They had herded them to a back alley before distributing the drug. They stayed until the last guard passed out before making a way back to the SUV, In the distance he could see Owen and Ianto who had insisted he was well enough to walk out of that place by seemed to be packing up the gear with Riley's help.

Walking up to Owen Jack asked him,

"Should he be doing that?"

"Yeah, probably not but you try stopping him, he's a tough bastard Jack. We just gotta watch him. I'm thinking he's gonna crash pretty soon so we should keep an eye on him"

Jack nodded.

Everything packed away he watched as they climbed in the SUV. He watched as Ianto hesitated, turning back to face the warehouse, an unreadable expression on his face. Jack moved closer, wrapping an arm around his waist, pressing a kiss to forehead.

"Come on, it's over, let's get you home."

Ianto nodded, wincing as Jack helped him into the front took once last glance before climbing in to the drivers side.

"OK Tosh, give us some clearance then light it up."

Jack turned the SUV around, keen to finally put some distance between them and that place.

********************

Groaning every part of his body burned. He blanched at the taste of blood in his mouth and tried to spit it out. It was futile as more replaced it, bleeding inside his mouth as well as from outside, invading all of his senses.

And he was hot.

His brain was fuzzy and he felt helpless, for once in his life a feeling of helpless fear gripped him. Opening one eye he tried to focus ahead as slowly figures of smiling faces glared back at him. He recognized them, the photograph hung mockingly in front of his eyes. Smiling, happy, carefree. Jenkins, Jones, Armstrong and Hallet.

God why was he so hot.

If he could have screamed he would have but his mouth would not open, a broken jaw making it impossible.

Strapped to the chair he would not move, even if his body had been able to.

Eyes widened in fear as he saw the flames rushing toward him. In his last moments it was not his family he thought of, no friends were left to mourn him. His legacy, his beautiful legacy was reduced to ashes and it this that was the final thought of David Thomas.

Resigned to his fate he closed his eyes once more and waited for the end.

TBC


	35. Chapter 35

_**Nearly finished with this one....just a few more chapters to go. Thanks to everyone who had commented, added to favorites etc. Your encouragement is much appreciated!**_

_**Ianto Jones broke twice…………**_

Jack watched from a window outside of the infirmary as Owen checked Ianto's obs.

He had collapsed not long after they had got back to the Hub. Jack had kept a close eye on him as Owen suggested. He watched his colour turn pale, his breathing became labored before passing out as Jack caught him.

At least it had given Owen a good chance to examine him and assess the injuries.

At the medics insistence Jack had been relegated to the outside of the room, well that and Owen threatened to shoot him if he didn't let him do his job.

So Jack had waited and watched.

Finally Owen looked up and caught Jack's eye, motioning him to come in.

Keeping his voice low Jack asked,

"How is he?"

Owen sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

"As I thought, concussion, bruising. He's taken a beating Jack, there's lacerations to his head and an entry point wound on his back."

"An entry point for what?"

Not sure but it looks like a delivery site for enough voltage to disturb the rhythm of his heart, hence the reason he blacked out."

"Electric shock?"

"Yep, looks like it's been delivered over a couple of days but the cyber had a real good go at finishing the job. Jack it's amazing he hung on that long to finish the thing off, not to mention walking out of there on his own two feet. Like a said before….one tough bastard."

Jack nodded, a feeling of pride washed over him as he gazed at Ianto.

"His heart?"

"I've managed to shock it back to a normal rhythm. I'd like to keep an eye on it for a while but it should be fine. Prognosis is good Jack, he'll be back to his annoyingly perfect self soon enough."

Jack nodded again.

"He should wake up soon, I've left some painkillers on the side there. Make sure he takes them. Are you going to stay with him?"

"Yes, Owen you go home, take Tosh and get out of here. Gwen's already gone, Riley's asleep on the sofa, I gave her some sleeping tablets."

Owen nodded.

"You need anything call me."

"Thanks."

As the medic left Jack sat down next to Ianto's bed. He was leaning against the pillows with eyes closed, asleep.

Jack gently rubbed the back of his hand with his thumb as Ianto's eyes flickered open.

Jack tried for a half smile.

Croakingly Ianto mumbled,

"Is that your reassuring face?"

Jack nodded. "How's it doing?"

Ianto contemplated it,

"Needs work."

Jack flashed a full smile and carefully leaned forward to kiss his forehead.

"Riley? She ok?"

"Yep, she's asleep on the sofa."

"Is he……Thomas…..is he?"

"Dead, he's gone Ianto."

Jack carded his fingers carefully through Ianto's hair as he watched Ianto closely.

"The other….the thing…..Lisa?" The last part was said in a whisper so quiet Jack hardly caught it.

"Ianto look at me."

Ianto winced as he turned his head. Jack stared into wet stormy eyes.

"It wasn't her, it was some sick manifestation of an obsession of a madman ok…it wasn't her."

"I know. My head knows that Jack."

Knowing what Ianto meant by that Jack leant forward once again, kissing his forehead and holding his hand.

Quietly Ianto started to speak as Jack rubbed circles on his hand.

"That day Jack, Canary Wharf, I tried to warn Lisa, tried to get her out but she insisted it was all safe, insisted it was all ok. It was too late by the time the metal moved in. I tried to save them but I couldn't. Jack I heard the screaming in the conversion units. I saw Yvonne lock 20 people in a room with 6 cyberman, the noise, the screaming it was too much. They never stood a chance"

Ianto swallowed hard, his eyes closed as he was lost to the memories. Jack had never heard him talk about London, he listened, waiting patiently for Ianto to start talking again.

"That's why I saved her Jack, I had to salvage something out of that day. I think I always knew she was gone, or going but I had to try, I had to…."

Sensing he was finished Jack moved in, holding his hand.

"I know, I know Ianto."

Reluctantly he let go of Ianto's hand before moving away to collect the pain killers Owen had left.

"Here"

He handed Ianto the pills but the younger man hesitated, his face scrunched in trepidation.

"Ianto, it's ok, they're just painkillers, please you shouldn't be in pain."

Slowly he nodded, wincing once again as he took them, swallowing them down with the water Jack also offered.

Placing the glass beside the bed Jack looked back into Ianto's face to notice tears flowing freely down his cheek.

"Hey, it's ok."

Jack moved up to the bed. Shifting Ianto carefully over as he laid down, pulling the young man back to him in an embrace. He was shaking slightly as Jack soothed him, rubbing circles carefully over his back.

As the sobbing subsided Jack felt his breathing even out and he knew Ianto was asleep, the painkillers doing their job.

He held him tightly and placed a hand over Ianto's heart. Jack felt the calm, regular heartbeat as it pounded away fiercely in his chest and thanked whatever was out there that this man was still alive.

tbc


	36. Chapter 36

_**A few days later…**_

There was a slight chill in the air as Jack pulled up at the gates of the cemetery and got out of the SUV.  
He watched closely as Ianto climbed gingerly out of the front seat, Jack remained as close as he could without seeming too obvious.

Riley climbed out of the back and stood looking around squinting into the sun. She walked up beside Ianto and took his arm giving it a light squeeze. He turned to face her and sharing a half smile they both started walking towards Connor's grave. Jack followed as they moved slowly, Riley aware of Ianto's injuries.  
Neither of them spoke as they stopped a the foot of the grave, all three of them pausing to gaze at the headstone. Jack watched curiously as Ianto and Riley bowed their heads in silent prayer.

After a while Ianto spoke, his voice low.

"_**Remember me when I am gone away,**_

_**Gone far away into the silent land;**_

_**When you can no more hold me by the hand,**_

_**Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.**_

_**Remember me when no more day by day**_

_**You tell me of our future that you planned;**_

_**Only remember me; you understand**_

_**It will be late to counsel then or pray.**_

_**Yet if you should forget me for a while**_

_**And afterwards remember, do not grieve:**_

_**For if the darkness and corruption leave**_

_**A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,**_

_**Better by far you should forget and smile,**_

_**Than that you should remember and be sad."***_

Jack wiped the tears away from his cheek as he turned his gaze from the headstone to the horizon in an effort to clear his vision.

Eventually it was Riley who broke the silence.

"Jack, could you give us a few minutes?"

Jack eyed Ianto then nodded, making his way to the wooded gazebo where he first met Riley.

It was Ianto that spoke first.

"How did you know"

"Huh?"

"That she betrayed us, how did you know it was her?"

Riley sighed….

"I knew it was her, well it had to be. I knew it wasn't me, sure as hell wasn't Connor and you, well I could read you well in those days Ianto, you were like an open book…….but…now? Your eyes are not as clear as they were back then. They are so much older than you little brother.

In a low soft voice Ianto whispered…

"I'm sorry."

Startled Riley answered….

"What for?"

"Lisa, if she hadn't sold us out perhaps he would still be here, it might have turned out different, we might have been able to….."

"Stop it Ianto, please listen to me when I say I've long since made my peace with what Lisa did, for my sake I have had to do that. He was my life, the other half of me. I can't honour his memory anymore with bitterness or regrets. I love him, and he loved me. That's what I choose to remember Ianto, not how it ended."

She wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight.

"Could you give me a minute?"

Ianto nodded as he placed a kiss to her forehead and turned to walk up to Jack.

She watched as he stepped inside the Gazebo as Jack enveloped him in an embrace. She smiled as hope filled her heart at the sight. Seeing him find love again gave her heart for the future. Turning back to the grave of her own lover she spoke out loud.

"It's over Con, I've been chasing these shadows so long I'm scared of letting them go, scared of letting you go...... But I have to, for my own sake as much as yours. If I'm going to stick around I've got to move forward. I know that's what you would want for me but letting you go will be by far the hardest thing I have ever done. I might not be back here for a while but never fear my love, know that you will always be in my thoughts. I love you, wish me luck, kiss me hard and never look back hey"

She smiled through tears as she recalled those were the last words he had said to her. She moved to the head of the grave as her fingertips ghosted over the letters of his name. Kissing her hand she laid the palm flat over them, lingering for a while before finally moving off to join the other two in the gazebo, she didn't look back once.

*******************

The ride back to the Hub was in a comfortable silence.

Once they had gotten inside Ianto found Riley gathering her things.

"What's this? Your leaving?"

Ianto gestured to the packed bags she had brought over from her small bedsit.

"Connor and I always promised each other we would see the world. I wanna go somewhere quiet, peaceful, normal. Somewhere I can start new memories. I have a taxi waiting Ianto, should be here anytime."

"Sounds good" Jack cut in. "Anytime though, you have a home here, you only have to call."

"Thanks Jack, I appreciate it and who knows, one day I may hold you to that."

Jack and Ianto stood by and watched as Owen, Tosh and Gwen bid their goodbyes to her, Jack watched Ianto's face carefully; he hadn't spoken since she announced her departure.

After their goodbyes Jack moved away from Ianto and caught Riley in an embrace. He whispered in her ear….."Thankyou."

"Take good care of him Jack."

Jack pulled back out of the embrace and nodded.

As Jack walked back to her suitcase he picked it up as the three of them walked out of the Hub and up onto the Plass, waiting for the taxi in the carpark.

She turned to Ianto and pulled him in to an embrace.

"Take care of yourself little brother."

"You too, please stay in touch? A postcard here and there wouldn't go astray."

She chuckled in her reply, "I promise, and Ianto? Never forget what you are fighting for ok? And trust Jack; stick with him cos your battle is not over yet."

She kissed his cheek as Jack cleared his throat to announce the taxi had arrived. Jack held the door open for her as she slid inside he then moved behind Ianto, wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling him to his body.

She blew Ianto a kiss as she waved them goodbye. Neither of them moved until the taxi was out of site.

"Come on, I just gotta finish some paperwork and then I'll take you home ok?"

Ianto nodded as he allowed Jack to steer him in the direction of the Hub.

"Coffee?"

Jack considered it for a moment, not sure that he should be taxing himself but them he nodded. He would rather Ianto kept busy, and he really missed his coffee. He kissed his forehead as the younger man closed his eyes, leaning into him for a brief moment before bounding up the stairs to his office. The sooner he started the paperwork, the sooner he could get him home.

tbc

*Christina Rossetti 1830-1894


	37. Chapter 37

It took Ianto 20 minutes to reach Jack's office with the coffee, Jack knew, Jack timed him

He was on the phone to UNIT about the best way to handle 25 weevils when he entered. He watched as Ianto gingerly made his way to deposit the brew on his desk before moving over to the couch in Jack's office, putting his cup on the floor and carefully lying on the was a sign of how tired he was to be voluntarily lying down in front of him.

As Jack tried in vain to get he UNIT Colonel off the phone he watched as Ianto closed his eyes and nestled into the couch.

In the end he had to be rude to cut the Colonel off, not that he cared and UNIT was more or less used to that kind of treatment from Torchwood 3. Grabbing the coffee and sighing at the first sip he silently made his way to Ianto. Kneeling down beside him he carefully stroked a hand over Ianto's cheek as the young man opened his eyes, flashing him a ½ smile.

"You know one day one of those Colonels is going to get some revenge on you Jack."

"Sit up for a second."

Jack helped Ianto to sit up as he positioned himself on the couch before pulling Ianto back onto his lap. Carding a hand through his hair he watched again as the young man gave in to sleep. Jack finished his coffee in silence content to be watching his lover finally with some peace written on his face.

He lost track of the time that had passed just sitting there until that peace was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.

"Jack?"

Jack pressed his finger to his lips as Tosh entered quietly followed by Owen and Gwen.

"Jack, you're right to go take him home if you like, we've got the rift under control should anything come up."

"It's fine guys, I appreciate it but...."

"Jack, Dr's orders ok, take him home, we've got it covered."

"Yeah Jack, stop arguing for once and do what your told."

Gwen said with her arms crossed, a fierce expression on her face.  
Feeling very much ganged up on, Jack conceded defeat.

"Ok, Ok I will when he wakes up."

"He is awake and he would very much like to go home."

Ianto had woken feeling all of their collective eyes on him making him feel very uncomfortable.

Sensing this, Jack spoke.

"Ok, looks like it has been decided, we will leave you to it then."

Sensing a cue to leave, the others bid goodnight, Owen left painkillers on Jack's desk before leaving.

Nudging Ianto to sit up Jack rose to his feet and held out a hand, pulling him up to his feet and into an embrace feeling Ianto lean into him as he fought for balance.

Once Jack knew he had himself centered he guided him down the stairs and out of the Hub.

***********************

Sitting on Ianto's couch Jack reclined back as the younger man nestled in against him contentedly drinking coffee. He wasn't sure if it was an altogether good thing for the Welshman to be doing but after the last few days he wasn't going to argue, Ianto could do whatever he wanted.

As they finished the cup Jack took it from Ianto's hands and placed it on the ground beside the couch and wrapped his arms back around his lover.

Jack was so relaxed that he jumped a little when Ianto spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm sorry."

Spluttering Jack asked,

"What for?"

Ianto turned slowly in his arms so he was now facing Jack. Lifting his hand he stroked the side of Jack's cheek before ghosting over the spot where the bullet from the gun he had held had entered Jack's skull.

"For shooting you."

"You have nothing to apologize for Ianto, you didn't have a choice and you did it to save the others. Besides, nothing invented yet has been able to kill off the Harkness charm."

Ianto tensed against him as Jack mentally slapped himself.

"Don't Jack! Don't joke about this. Just because you can come back does not mean you should have to suffer, doesn't mean I'm not sorry, that it didn't hurt to….to...."

Jack bit back tears as Ianto continued to stroke the side of his face, ghosting his fingertips over the site where the hole should be.

Jack reached up to take his hand as he leaned forward to kiss his lips. Pulling back Jack said,

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that and I wish you hadn't had to do it."

Jack held his head and made him meet his stare before he added,

"I'm proud of you, for having the strength to do it. Do you understand that?"

Ianto hesitated before nodding as Jack leaned forward once again, softly caressing his lips. It felt almost as if Jack was reclaiming his mouth for his own as he gently caressed his bottom lip placing tender bites along it before moving up to tease his top lip as the promise of a tongue threatened to breach the void.

As if reading Jack's mind Ianto opened his mouth as he warmed to the kiss, drawing Jack's tongue inside as it began a slow re-exploration. Jack ran his tongue over his teeth, flicking against the roof of his mouth, tasting every inch of Ianto as if it was his first and last ever taste of him.

Jack felt a spark in his arousal as he absent mindedly ground himself up against his lover, pleased to find his arousal matched his own.

Before anything could go further Jack forced himself to break the kiss, mindful of Ianto's physical state he wanted to stop before he went too far.

"No…..don't stop." Ianto pleaded.

"Ianto you're injured, I don't want to hurt you."

Ianto placed his hands on either side of Jack's face, holding it so that now Jack was forced to meet his gaze.

"Please Jack, I need you, I need you to make better memories with me, please?"

Jack looked back into perfect blue and he knew in that moment he was lost, nodding he said.

"Not here though, somewhere more comfortable"

tbc


	38. Chapter 38

Standing up Jack led him to the bedroom where he ordered him to undress and lay on the bed before he left the room.

When he returned he had a bowl of warm water, a sponge and the wonderful scent of Sandalwood.

"Close your eyes."

Ianto complied immediately, Jack gazed down at his perfect body, touched by the trust Ianto had in him.

He wrung out the sponge and started gently wiping the young man's feet before softly moving up his legs, wiping carefully, his eyes carefully following his movements as the cloth glided over his soft skin.

Ianto whimpered as Jack deliberately missed his groin and made his way up to his torso and returned to his careful wash. He smoothed gently over bruises, gliding over grazes always watching as Ianto winced when the warm water touched his skin. Jack watched as his winces turned to small moans and tears started forming at the edges of his eyes, rolling down his cheeks.

"Shhhh" Jack soothed as his wiping went on. He felt Ianto shivering slightly under his touch, goosebumps rolled over his skin as Jack bent to place kisses over the bruises and cuts. He cursed mentally as his lips soothed the boot shaped bruise over his chest.

Once Jack was satisfied he was done he threw the sponge back into the now dirty water and shifted the bowl to the floor beside the bed, never once taking his free hand off Ianto's chest.

As Ianto whimpered below him Jack trailed his hand down to his cock, swiping his thumb over the tip, spreading pre-cum over his cock before giving it a hard tug.

Whimpers turned into moans as Ianto started grinding himself against Jack's hand, looking for purchase.

Jack let go of his cock as he moved to stretch out against Ianto, wanting as much body contact as he could. Warm flesh made contact as they both moved desperately together as if trying to crawl into each other's skin.

When Jack heard Ianto hiss in pain as their grinding got more intense and he stopped and froze, pulling back to check on his lovers distress.

"You ok? We can stop…."

"Not sure I can at this point." Ianto opened his eyes…

"Make love to me Jack."

Nodding Jack kissed his lips tenderly before settling him back on the bed, placing a pillow under his hips as he grabbed for the lube kept in the bedside drawer. Moving back between his legs Jack placed small kisses on the inside of his thigh before moving further down towards his groin, flashing a lewd smile back up to the Welshman as he came undone underneath him.

Jack slicked his hand and fingers, he leant forward to take Ianto's cock in his mouth as at the same time he pushed a finger slowly into his entrance, encircling the ring of muscle before feeling it relax and draw him in.

Working his mouth around Ianto's shaft he began to tongue the underside of his cock, with the tip of his tongue he traced circles upon circles up and down his length while slowly twisting his finger around in his tight channel.

His erratic tongue ensured Ianto could not find a steady rhythm to bring him to climax while he slipped a second, then third finger inside him, curling them in and out as he stretched him, feeling for nerve endings to drive him further to the edge with each caress.

Ianto was writhing, he felt nothing but Jack, aware of nothing else other than Jack and he felt himself slipping away. All of the horrors of the last few days where suspended, if only for a few seconds it wasn't Thomas' grinning face or the cold robotic eyes of Lisa. He needed this mentally as well as physically and as much as he wanted in never to end he felt his body reach a breaking point.

"Jack….too close…….need you, need you inside me."

He felt hot tears falling down his face as a sudden rush of memories from the past few days came rushing back only to fall away with every caress of Jack's fingers.

Sensing his distress Jack released his cock and stilled his fingers but did not remove them. He moved back up to be level with Ianto's head. Soothingly he wiped the tears away with his free hand whispering.

"Shhhh, you can lose yourself in me, I'll take care of you, I promise."

A sob escaped Ianto's lips as he opened his eyes.

"I need you."

Kissing him tenderly Jack swiped his fingers once again over his prostate and almost sent Ianto bucking off the bed. Kissing him again as a distraction as he slid his fingers from the young man's body, straddling Ianto he moved up so he was knelt over his torso careful not to apply any weight to his chest as he handed the lube to him.

Not a word was needed as Ianto grabbed the tube and warmed the liquid in his hands before taking Jack's length with both hands, twisting slightly as he reached the base before moving back up over the tip, pausing to run a finger over the eye of his cock.

Stilling his hand Jack whimpered.

"Enough, need to take you, need to be inside you, feel you come."

Jack moved his way back down Ianto's body as the young man carefully brought his knees up, opening himself up to Jack as the older man aligned himself before pushing the tip of his cock through the tight muscle. He watched Ianto's face as he pulled out and repeated his intrusion, careful to insert only the tip again, waiting precious seconds before pulling out to repeat.

"Just fuck me Jack, fuck me."

"Like this?"

Ianto groaned in lust as Jack slip in all the way burying himself and started to thrust in and out, each time deeper than the last.

The sounds of flesh hitting flesh, heavy labored breathing, groans of desire were all that filled the air, driving their lust onwards.

Jack watched Ianto's face as his eyes where screwed shut tight, Jack's name repeated like a mantra, tears still falling. As much as Jack wanted to prolong the pleasure, he wanted to finish this, to drive him over the edge so he could pull him back again.

Jack shifted the angle to ensure he was striking the spot that drove Ianto wild, increasing the pressure and speed as he grabbed Ianto's cock, fisting it in time with his thrusts.

Ianto felt he was close, the lines between pleasure and pain blurred and fought for dominance before pleasure won and Ianto felt his release as he came with a shout over Jack's hand and with two deep thrusts Jack followed as the hot rush released inside of him.

Ianto was overwhelmed as feelings from the past few days rushed back, fear, pain, love and loss hit him as he found he could no longer hold them at bay. It was as if to feel the love, the happiness, he would need to let it all in.

As Jack came down he realized Ianto was shaking and not in a good way. Slowly disengaging from him he moved gently up to gather him in his arms as Ianto buried himself against his chest.

Jack held him.

"You'll stay?"

Ianto's voice sounded desperate.

"I'm not going anywhere Yan, I promise."

He waited until the shaking stopped, till Ianto's breathing evened out before carefully slipping out of bed to get a cloth to clean them both before climbing back beside Ianto, falling asleep with the young man in his arms.

tbc


	39. Chapter 39

**"And if I speak to you of days upon the ocean,  
I can speak to you of memories and dust.  
There wont be time for all of us,  
You know there wont be time for all of us.**

**But in the morning I can smell you on my pillow,  
I need to know we wont get wrung out in the wash,  
I need to know there's time for us,  
I must believe there's time for some of us"**

**Josh Pyke - Memories and Dust**

Jack rolled over and reached out his hand in an unconscious gesture to reassure himself that Ianto was still lying beside him. When his hand touched nothing but soft mattress his eyes snapped open in a slight panic as his hand flailed in the bedsheets in a desperate search for his lover. He sat bolt upright his heart hammering in his chest blinking as his eyes became accustomed to the dark bedroom. Ianto wasn't there. Only mildly panicking Jack growled at himself to calm down, he couldn't have gotten far, Swinging his legs over the side of the bed Jack pushed himself off and out of the door, wrapping a robe around himself as he went.  
In the hall he found a light coming from the lounge.

Slowly he let the breath out that he wasn't even aware he had been holding as he silently made his way down the corridor. 2.40 am blinked out accusingly from the clock on the oven in the kitchen and Jack had to blink to let his eyes adjust to the light as he stepped into the lounge. There in the middle of the floor sat Ianto, his back leaning up against the sofa and there was a box nearby from which Ianto had pulled out photos that now lay all around him.

Jack stood at the door watching as Ianto sorted carefully and methodically through the photos.

"Are you coming in or you just going to stand there gawking at me?"

"I never gawk, I ogle."

"So much better" Ianto replied sarcastically without taking his eyes from the photo he was holding.

Jack pushed off the doorframe and crossed the room, taking up position on the floor right next to him as he handed Jack a photograph of a group of young people posing in front of a building. As Jack took the photo Ianto leaned into him, Jack moved his arm so it was around Ianto's shoulder and his back as the young man snuggled his head in under Jacks chin, reclining on his shoulder. Jack rubbed circles over his back as he looked at the photo.

"You all looked so happy."

"We were." Ianto smiled at the memory.

"I had just asked Lisa out for the first time, I was so happy that day. We went double dating that night with Riley and Connor. Ten Pin bowling if memory serves." Ianto made a face at that.  
"I tried bowling once, ended up on my ass when I forgot to let go of the ball."  
Jack felt Ianto chuckle against him, drawing a smile from the older man.

Jack watched as Ianto picked up another photograph much along the same lines, same scene only slightly different, like a timestamp. he watched as he careully ran his finger over the face of Lisa Hallett as she stood beaming out into the lens.

"She betrayed us Jack."

"Ianto she….."

"No, don't try to justify it for me. She betrayed us, it got someone killed and it almost destroyed the person who loved him most. I know all the reasons she did it. I know she thought it was for the best, the greater good." Jack felt him shudder as he drew him closer.  
"I just hope when it all went down, when the consequences had played out, she knew what she had done and regretted it."

Ianto took a pair of scissors from the carpet beside him and went to cut Lisa from the picture.

"Yan…"

Jack placed his hand over the scissors to stop him.

He looked up into Jack's eyes.

"This was such a good memory Jack and now it is tainted by what she did."

"But it's your memory Yan, these past few days should remind all of us that your memory, that is something no one should ever mess with" and gods knows I should know that better than most Jack thought.

Ianto moved his hand so the photo he had and the photo Jack held now sat side by side.

"I hear you Jack. This one…" he pointed to the one in Jack's hand

"This one I keep intact, as it was warts and all and appreciate the memory for what it was. This one, is mine, this one is nothing but happiness Jack, untainted."

Jack nodded his head, letting go of Ianto's hand and watched as he carefully extracted Lisa from the picture.

When he was finished he picked up a frame that was lying nearby and pressed the photo in. Closing the back he leaned forward and placed it on the coffee table, wincing slightly as his body protested at the movement. Leaning back against Jack he admired the photo.

"It was a good time Jack, it's about time I reminded myself that it wasn't all bad, no matter how it ended."

Jack pressed a kiss to his forehead, still rubbing circles on his back.

They sat like that for a while until Jack felt Ianto begin to drift off to sleep against his chest.

"Yan?"

"Hmmmmm"

"Come on, back to bed, Owen will kill me if he knows I let you sleep on the floor"

Ianto sat up as Jack stood and he allowed himself to be pulled up and led back to the bedroom. He climbed in, feeling Jack's hand encircle his waist and his strong safe body spoon up against him and for the first time in a long time Ianto could see a path forward and the shadows of the past were no longer as dark as they once were.

FIN.

**Thankyou to everyone who commented and encouraged on his story. I can't believe I made it to the end, at times I had serious doubts :) Next from me is a short 7-8 chapter that is a bit random and then another story following on from this one.**


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